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THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Author of 

Bobby in Search of a Birthday 




Jerry kept fascinated eyes on that chalky white face 
with the very, very red lips. Frontispiece. Seepage 128. 


THE CIRCUS COMES 
TO TOWN 


BY 

LEBBEUS MITCHELL 

VN 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

RHODA CHASE 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
1921 




11-1*16$ 


v 


\ 



Copyright , 1921, 

By Little, Brown, and Company. 


All rights reserved 
Published October, 1921 


OCT 17 1921 


Norfoooti Press 

Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co. 
Norwood, Mass,, U.S.A. 


* 



§>CU627420 







I 


ryy 



I. “ Ask Your Mother for Fifty Cents ” 1 

II. The Black Half-Dollar . . .18 

III. The Width of an Elephant’s Tail . 37 

IV. Jerry Learns that O-U-T Spells Out 49 

V. The Green Elephant Buys an Audi- 
ence 65 

VI. The Children that Cried in the Lane 80 
VII. Tickets to Paradise .... 97 

VIII. The Crocodile Tears of Celia Jane 112 
IX. Clown of Clowns .... 127 
X. “Great Sult Anna O’Queen ” . . 142 

XI. A Boy Named Gary .... 157 

XII. The Dizzy Seat of Glory . . .171 

XIII. “ — and Elephants to Ride Upon” . 188 













Illustrations 


Jerry kept fascinated eyes on that chalky 

white face with the very, very red lips Frontispiece 

Jerry turned back to the billboard, and the 

Mullarkey children lined up at his side . page 14 

Flora managed to walk the ten feet to the 

opposite post without falling off . “ 71 

Jerry held out his arms, crying, “ Up ! Up ! 

Suit Anna!” “152 



THE CIRCUS COMES 
TO TOWN 


CHAPTER I 

“Ask Your Mother for Fifty Cents” 

The apple seemed to Jerry Elbow too 
big to be true. 

He held it out at arm’s length to get a 
good squint at its bigness and its redness. 
Then he turned to look wonderingly after 
the disappearing automobile with the lady 
who had tossed him the apple for directing 
her to the post office. A long trail of dust 
rose from the unpaved street behind the 
motor car. 

Next he addressed himself to the busi- 
ness of eating the apple. He rubbed it shiny 
against his patched trousers, carefully hunted 
out the reddest spot on it, and took a big, 
luscious bite. Instead of chewing the morsel 
at once., he crushed it against his palate 
1 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


just to feel the mellowness of it and to get 
the full flavor of the first taste of juice. Then 
he chewed vigorously. 

He started on to Mother ’Larkey’s where 
he had made his home for nearly three years, 
ever since Mr. Mullarkey, dead this year 
now, had found him by the roadside one 
dark night. He had just started to take a 
second bite when a shout stopped him. 

“Hi, Jerry ! What you got?” 

Instinctively Jerry hid the apple behind 
him, for it was Danny Mullarkey’s voice 
that he had heard. 

“Jerry’s got something to eat!” Danny 
called over his shoulder to some one out 
of sight. “Come on, kids !” 

Jerry hastily swallowed the piece of apple 
in his mouth and bit off the very largest 
chunk he could. He knew by long and 
bitter experience how little would be left for 
him after the Mullarkey brood had all nibbled 
at it. 

Danny, who was past nine, reached him 
before Jerry could gulp down that mouth- 
ful and take another bite, as he had intended 
to do. Chris and Nora followed at Danny’s 
2 


“ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS ” 

heels, with Celia Jane, as usual, far in the 
rear. 

“Save me a bite, Jerry !” called Celia Jane. 

“Give me a bite of your apple, Jerry,” 
coaxed Danny. 

“Me, too,” echoed Chris. 

“It looks awful nice,” observed Nora. 
“Where ’d you get it?” 

Jerry explained and handed her the apple 
first because she had not asked for a bite. 
Nora bit off a small piece and was passing 
it on to Celia Jane, who ran panting up to 
them, when Jerry stopped her by urging : 

“Take a bigger bite than that, Nora. I 
want you to.” 

“Not till after you’ve had your turn 
again,” replied Nora, who was nearly eight 
and was celebrated in the Mullarkey house- 
hold for a finer sense of fair play than any 
of the others possessed. 

Celia Jane was greedy and bit off so big 
a chunk that she could not cram it into her 
mouth, despite her heroic efforts to accom- 
plish that feat. 

“That ain’t fair, Celia Jane,” reproved Nora. 
“Mother told you never to do that again.” 

3 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“That ’s two bites !” cried Danny. “Take 
it out and bite it in two.” 

Celia Jane’s mouth was too full for utter- 
ance. She held out the apple to Danny, 
then freed her mouth of its embarrassment 
of riches and proceeded to bite it in two. 

“Here, Chris,” invited Danny, “take your 
bite next.” 

Jerry became immediately suspicious at 
such unaccustomed politeness on Danny’s 
part and he was not at all surprised when 
Danny, once the remainder of the apple 
was again in his hands, took to his heels. 

“Save me a bite!” cried Celia Jane, 
swallowing the morsel in her mouth so 
quickly that she came near to choking, and 
tagged after her older brother as fast as she 
could run. 

“Danny !” cried Jerry. “That ’s no fair !” 

He started to run after the vanishing 
apple, but was quickly passed, first by Chris 
and then by Nora, who called back to him : 
“Maybe I can save the core for you, Jerry.” 

Bitterness arose in Jerry’s soul. He knew 
that he could n’t catch up with Danny, 
but he kept on running. That old, odd 
4 


“ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS 


feeling that he did not belong to the Mul- 
larkeys, though living with them, came over 
him again, and he had already begun to 
slow down his pace when he was brought 
to a full and sudden stop by a picture 
blazoned on a billboard. 

He stared spellbound, without even wink- 
ing. Of all delectable things, it was the 
picture of an elephant ! A purple elephant 
jumping over a green fence, its trunk raised 
high in the air until it almost touched the 
full, red moon at the top of the poster. The 
elephant had such a roguish and knowing 
look in his small eyes and such a smirk on 
his funny little mouth that Jerry began to 
smile without being the least bit conscious 
that he was doing so. 

The smile kept spreading in complete 
understanding of the look on the elephant’s 
face and he probably would have laughed 
aloud had not the picture somehow made 
him think of something, he could n’t just re- 
member what. A dim idea seemed to be 
trying to break into his mind but could n’t 
find the right door. In his effort to puzzle 
out what it was the elephant made him 
5 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


think of, Jerry entirely forgot the large red 
apple and the perfidy of Danny. 

“ What ’re you lookin’ at?” called Danny, 
who had stopped half a block farther on 
when he no longer heard Jerry’s pursuing 
footsteps. 

Jerry did not answer. Instead, he squatted 
down on the grassy bank between the side- 
walk and the billboard and feasted his eyes 
on that delightfully extravagant elephant 
which seemed almost to wink at him. Jerry 
half expected to see the elephant grab the 
moon and balance it on the end of his trunk, 
or toss it up into the sky and catch it again 
as it fell. 

“Come on, Jerry, if you want the core,” 
called Danny again. “That’s all that ’s left.” 

“Don’t want the core,” said Jerry. “It 
was my apple. The lady gave it to me.” He 
did n’t even look at Danny but kept staring 
at the very purple elephant and the very 
red moon almost on the tip-end of his trunk. 
He just would n’t let Danny Mullarkey 
know that it made any difference to him 
whether Danny and Chris and Nora and 
Celia Jane liked him very much or not. 

6 


“ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS” 


No, and he would n’t feel so terribly bad if 
Mother ’Larkey and little Kathleen did n’t 
like him, either. 

“You ain’t lost your tongue, have you?” 
cried Danny. 

“Maybe the cat’s got it,” said Celia Jane, 
following as usual her elder brother’s lead 
and laughing at her own wit. 

“What you starin’ at so hard, Jerry?” 
called Chris. 

Jerry disdained to reply or to let his en- 
raptured gaze wander for a moment from the 
dazzling poster. Curiosity soon got the bet- 
ter of Chris and he started to walk back. 

“El’funt!” shouted Chris, when he was 
near enough to see the poster. His shout 
started the whole Mullarkey brood gallop- 
ing towards the billboard. 

“The circus!” cried Danny, from the 
superior experience of his nine years. “The 
circus is coming to town 1 !” He threw him- 
self on the grass by Jerry and pressed the 
uneaten apple core into his hand. 

“I don’t want it,” said Jerry. 

“Aw, take it, Jerry. I didn’t mean to 
eat so much of it, honest I did n’t. I just 
7 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


wanted to tease you.” He closed Jerry’s 
fingers around the core. 

“It doesn’t say the circus is coming,” 
Nora observed, pointing to some lettering 
in one corner of the poster. Nora was nearly 
eight years old and proud of her ability to 
read print, if the words were n’t too big, 
— an ability shared by none of the others 
except Danny. 

“It does, too!” contradicted Celia Jane, 
wrinkling up her nose preparatory to crying 
with disappointment if the circus were not 
coming. “There ’s some writin’ on it.” 

“What does it say, Danny?” eagerly 
asked Jerry, going close to the billboard as 
though that might help him to make out 
what was printed on it. “Ain’t it coming?” 

“ Read it quick, Danny ! Please ! I can’t 
wait !” cried Celia Jane. 

Thus besought, Danny read somewhat 
haltingly, for the “writin”’ was in queerly 
formed letters, these words which are known 
to all children : 

Ask your mother for fifty cents 
To see the elephant jump the fence, 

8 


“ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS” 


He jumped so high he hit the sky 

And never came down till the Fourth of July. 

“Is that all?” asked Celia Jane, very much 
disappointed. 

“ Did n’t I just read it to you?” was 
Danny's rejoinder. 

“Then the circus ain't cornin’, is it?” 
said Chris. 

“It don’t say so,” replied Nora. “It 
don’t say whether it ’s cornin’ or whether 
it ain’t.” 

“It does n’t say it ’s a circus ,” said Danny. 
“It might be just an ‘ad’ for — for any old 
thing.” 

“For a menajeree?” asked Celia Jane. 

“Or chewin’ gum?” suggested Chris. 

“Or something,” affirmed Danny deci- 
sively. 

Jerry forgot to be disappointed about the 
circus not coming, for he was bothered about 
what it was that the picture of the elephant 
made him almost think of. He tried and 
tried with all his might to think what it was, 
but did n’t succeed. Then something almost 
like faint music seemed to hum in his ears and 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


his lips unconsciously formed a word. “Oh, 
queen,” he murmured. 

“Oh, what?” said Danny sharply, turning 
to him. 

“I didn’t know I said anything,” replied 
Jerry. “I did n’t mean to.” 

“You did,” said Celia Jane. “You said, 
‘Oh, queen.’ ” 

“What does that mean, ‘Oh, queen’?” 
asked Danny. 

“I — I don’t know,” replied Jerry. 

“What did you say it for then?” 

Jerry felt that he was being treated un- 
fairly when he was n’t conscious of having 
said anything and he did n’t answer. He 
was sorry that the humming almost like music 
would n’t come back, — it was so comforting. 

“If you don’t know what ‘Oh, queen’ 
means, what did you say ‘Oh, queen’ for?” 
persisted Danny. 

“I don’t know,” Jerry replied, at a loss. 
Then he brightened. “I might have heard 
it, sometime.” 

“Maybe it was somebody’s name?” sug- 
gested Nora. 

“I don’t know.” 


10 


“ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS 


“It ’s an Irish name, if it’s got an O in 
front of it, and you said ‘ O’Queen Celia 
Jane stated. 

“Did you ever know an Irish man or Irish 
woman by the name of ‘O’Queen’?” ques- 
tioned Danny. 

“I don’t know,” repeated Jerry, his lips 
twisting in real distress at not being able to 
think what could have made him say a thing 
like that. 

“You don’t know anything, do you?” 
asked Danny in the teasing, affronting tone 
he sometimes adopted with Jerry. 

“I do, too,” affirmed Jerry, his lips tight- 
ening. 

“You don’t know how old you are,” said 
Celia Jane, following Danny’s lead. 

“Do you know what your name is?” asked 
Danny. 

“Jerry Elbow,” replied Jerry, hot within 
at this making fun of his name which always 
seemed to give Danny so much enjoyment. 

“Jerry Elbow” said Danny, putting so 
much sarcasm into pronouncing the name as 
to make it almost unbelievable that it could 
be a name. “What kind of a name is 
11 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


that — Elbow ! Might as well be Neck — or 
Foot.” 

“It ’s just as good as Danny Mullarkey !” 
declared Jerry. 

“There ’s nothing the matter with your 
name, Jerry,” interposed Nora. “Eat the 
core of your apple,” she continued, pointing 
at it, forgotten, but still clutched tightly in his 
fist. 

“I don’t want the old core,” said Jerry and 
threw it against the billboard. 

Celia Jane ran after it, grabbed it eagerly, 
wiped it off on her skirt and popped it into 
her mouth. 

“Celia Jane!” called Nora, “Don’t you 
eat that core after it ’s been in the dirt.” 

But Celia Jane had quickly chewed and 
swallowed it. “It ’s gone,” she said. “Be- 
sides, it was n’t dirty enough to amount to 
anything.” 

Jerry had returned to contemplation of the 
elephant jumping the fence, when a youthful 
voice called from across the street, “Look at 
it good, kid. I guess it ’s about all of the 
circus you ’ll see.” 

Jerry and the Mullarkey children turned 

12 


“ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS ” 


and faced the speaker. It was “Darn” 
Darner, the ten-year old son of Timothy 
Darner, the county overseer of the poor, and 
a more or less important personage, especially 
in his own eyes. You had to be very par- 
ticular how you spoke to “Darn” unless you 
wanted to get into a fight, and unless you were 
as old and as big as he was you had no desire 
to fight with him. He was especially touchy 
about his name. He had been “Jimmie” 
at home but once at school he had signed 
himself, in the full glory of his name, J. Darn- 
ton Darner, perhaps to do honor to his grand- 
father, after whom he had been named. 
Thereafter “Darn” was the only name that 
he was known by outside of the classroom and 
his own home. 

He had fights innumerable trying to stop 
the boys calling him by that name, but it 
persisted until at length he came to accept 
it. You could call him “Darn” or shout 
“Oh, Darn !” and nothing would happen, but 
if, in your excitement, you grew too emphatic 
and said “ Darn /” or “Oh, Darn /” you might 
have to run for the nearest refuge, or take a 
pummeling from his fists. 

13 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


So now Jerry answered very politely. “It 
looks good/’ he said. 

“Is the circus coming?” asked Danny. 

“Of course it is. What do you suppose 
they ’ve put up the posters for ?” 

“It don’t say so here,” said Nora. “All 
it says is — ” 

Darn interrupted. “Where ’ve you kids 
been? That old poster has been up for a 
week. Two new ones were pasted up to-day 
— one at Jenkins’ corner and the other on 
Jeffreys’ barn. It’s Burrows and Fairchild’s 
mammoth circus and menagerie and it ’s 
coming a week from Thursday.” 

“Are you going, Darn?” asked Danny. 

“Am I going?” repeated that youth. “I 
should say I am going — in a box seat.” 

“Is it a big circus?” asked Chris. 

“It ’s one of the biggest there is,” replied 
Darn, “with elephants and clowns and a 
bearded lady and everything. I ’ll tell you 
all about it the next day.” 

Without more ado, he began to whistle and 
continued on his way. When he was out of 
sight, Jerry turned back to the billboard, and 
the Mullarkey chiLdren lined up at his side 
14 



Jerry turned back to the billboard, and the Mullarkey 
children lined up at his side. Page 14. 




ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS” 


and stood in silent contemplation of the 
delights forecast in the picture. They felt a 
new respect for that elephant. 

“I don’t suppose we can go,” said Chris at 
length in a voice that invited contradiction. 
His remark was met by silence and they con- 
tinued to stare at the elephant. 

Jerry was puzzled. “What does it want 
you to ask your mother for fifty cents for?” 
he asked Danny. 

“To buy a ticket for the circus, of course.” 

“Will she give you fifty cents ?” 

Danny seemed struck by some sudden 
thought; whether or not his question had 
inspired it Jerry was unable to tell. After 
pondering for a time, Danny set out towards 
home on a run without having answered the 
question. 

“Wdiere’re you goin’ ?” asked Chris, with 
a tinge of suspicion in his voice. 

“I ’m goin’ to ask mother and see.” 

“That’s no fair!” cried Chris. “You 
can run the fastest and ’ll get to ask her 
first.” 

“She can’t give fifty cents to all of us,” 
replied Danny and kept on running. 

15 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“ Danny Mullarkey! You’re a mean old 
thing!” called Nora. 

Already Chris was racing after Danny ; 
the contagion soon spread and first Nora and 
then Celia Jane were running with all their 
might after their brothers. 

Jerry started to run after them, but it was a 
half-hearted run and he brought up a very 
laggard rear. He never tried to get anything 
for himself that the clannish Mullarkey brood 
had in their possession, or to which they 
could with any shred of justice lay claim. If 
he did, he knew by experience that they 
would all unite against him — all except 
Mother ’Larkey, who, trying to earn money 
to support them all, could not always know 
what was going on under her tired, kindly 
eyes, much less the things that took place 
behind her back. And baby Kathleen, who 
was too little to feel the claims of the Mul- 
larkey blood and who loved everybody. 

But Jerry was sure he had never seen a 
circus and he did want to go to this one and 
see the elephant jump the fence. He felt 
very friendly to that elephant and well 
acquainted with it. The roguish look in its 
16 


“ASK MOTHER FOR FIFTY CENTS ” 


eyes, in the picture, made it seem a very nice 
sort of elephant and he knew he would like it. 

But he also knew that Mother ’Larkey 
found it very hard to make both ends meet 
since her husband died — he had often heard 
her say so — but there might be a possible 
chance that she would have several fifty- 
cent pieces, so he started again to run after 
the other children, keeping close enough to be 
in time if Mrs. Mullarkey should happen to 
be distributing fifty-cent pieces among her 
brood and there should happen to be an extra 
one for him. Even though she were not his 
mother, she might give it to him, she had 
already done so many things for him. 


17 


CHAPTER II 


The Black Half-dollar 

Jerry’s progress was brought to a sudden 
halt and he was sent sprawling to the ground 
by running full tilt into a man who tried to 
turn the same corner at the same time Jerry 
did, but from the opposite direction. The 
impact was so swift and so hard that Jerry 
was whirled clear around and fell on his face, 
striking two small pieces of board lying near 
the sidewalk and loosening a plank in the 
sidewalk itself. 

“Oh!” gasped the man’s voice. 

Before Jerry could stir he heard a clink as 
of metal falling on board. He half turned 
on his back and looked dazedly up at the man, 
who was pressing both hands into the pit of 
his stomach. His face was very red. He 
spoke to Jerry hesitatingly, as though he 
could not get his breath. 

“Are you — hurt — much ?” 

“N-no, I guess not,” Jerry replied, sitting 
18 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 

up and feeling of a bruised place on his 
arm. 

“ You just about knocked the breath out of 
me” said the man in a more natural voice 
and one which Jerry now recognized as be- 
longing to Harry Barton, the clerk at the 
corner drug store. 

“I’m sorry, Mr. Barton. If I’d of seen 
you—” 

“You wouldn’t have run into me,” fin- 
ished Mr. Barton. “Of course not. There 
are a lot of things we would n’t do if we could 
see what the results were going to be. Why, 
bless me, it ’s Jerry Elbow ! Well, I guess 
there was n’t much harm done this time. You 
seemed to be in quite a hurry. Have I de- 
layed you?” 

“Yes, sir, I was in a hurry,” Jerry answered. 
“Danny was running to ask Mother ’Larkey 
for fifty cents to see the circus.” 

“And what were you running for?” 

Jerry started to get up as he replied. 

“To see if she had fifty cents for Da — ” 

He stopped speaking and stopped getting 
up at the same time. A glint of silver on the 
sidewalk back of Mr. Barton caught his eye. 

19 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


It was a half-dollar! Jerry sank to a sitting 
posture and gazed in rapt wonder at this 
answer to an unsaid prayer. 

“You are hurt!” cried Mr. Barton solicit- 
ously and stooped to help Jerry up. “Where 
does it pain you?” 

“It’s fifty cents !” cried Jerry, his lips 
unsealed at last, and he scrambled eagerly 
for the coin. 

“Well, there ’s nothing very painful in that, 
is there?” laughed Mr. Barton. 

Jerry rose, clutching the dirty half-dollar 
tightly, a light of joyful anticipation in his 
eyes. 

“There ’s not much need of asking what you 
will spend it for,” observed the drug clerk. 

“For a ticket to the circus!” cried Jerry, 
his eyes sparkling at the thought of future 
delights. 

“I guessed it the first time,” said Mr. 
Barton. “ I thought I heard something metal- 
lic fall on the sidewalk when you ran into me, 
but I had such hard work getting my breath 
back that I forgot all about it.” 

Such a harrowing thought now popped into 
Jerry’s mind that unconsciously he closed 
20 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 


his fingers entirely around the precious half- 
dollar. What if it were Mr. Barton’s ! Per- 
haps he had knocked it out of Mr. Barton’s 
pocket when he ran into him. He had heard 
the clink of its fall just after the collision, as 
he lay on the ground. 

After a short but sharp struggle with him- 
self, Jerry looked up and held out the money 
to Mr. Barton. He tried to smile, but was 
conscious that the twisting of his lips did n’t 
look much like a smile. 

“It ’s yours, I guess, Mr. Barton.” 

“Mine!” exclaimed the surprised drug 
clerk. “You saw it first.” 

“Yes, but I heard it fall just after I ran 
into you. I must of knocked it out of your 
pocket. I did n’t have no half-dollar.” 

“No more did I,” replied Mr. Barton. 

“You didn’t!” exclaimed Jerry, and joy 
came unbidden back into his eyes and there 
was a very different feel to his lips. He knew 
that it was a real smile this time. 

“Not this late in the week,” Mr. Barton 
informed him. “It ’s too long after pay day 
for me to have that much money. I ’ve got 
just thirty-five cents.” 

21 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


He drew some small coins out of his pocket. 

“Yes, it’s all here. The half-dollar must 
have been lying on one of the boards that 
you struck in falling. Let ’s see it.” 

He took the money and examined it. 

“It was almost covered with dirt,” he said. 
“So was one end of both boards. Hello! 
That ’s a funny black mark on the other side. 
Looks as though somebody had smeared it 
with black paint.” 

“That does n’t hurt it any, does it?” asked 
Jerry in trepidation. 

“Not a bit ! It ’s good for a ticket to the 
circus.” 

“If I hadn’t of run into you, I wouldn’t 
get to go,” observed Jerry. 

“That’s so,” responded Mr. Barton. “I 
would n’t let any one know you found the 
money. Just sneak off to the circus when 
it comes and buy your ticket. Danny would 
find some way to get it away from you if he 
knew you had it.” 

“I guess mebbe he would,” Jerry responded. 

“You just keep it to yourself and enjoy the 
circus,” Mr. Barton advised him and went 
on to the store. 


22 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 


Jerry trudged slowly back toward Mrs. 
Mullarkey’s, thinking intently. 

The gloom that pervaded the house was so 
deep that Jerry perceived it as soon as he 
opened the door. Danny sat glowering by 
the window; Celia Jane was weeping un- 
ashamed, while Chris and Nora were trying 
not to show their disappointment. 

So Mother ’Larkey had not yet been able 
to make both ends meet — those troublesome, 
refractory ends that made her life a continual 
round of hard work — and there were no 
fifty-cent pieces for the children to buy 
tickets with to see the elephant jump the 
fence. Jerry hugged himself just to feel the 
half-dollar in his blouse pocket and a glow 
of exultation ran over his body at the thought 
that he was going to get to see the circus. 

Mrs. Mullarkey, looking tired and worn, 
was ripping apart the dress for Mrs. Green 
that she had just finished at noon. Baby 
Kathleen sat at her feet, playing with the old 
rag doll that had once been Nora’s and was 
now claimed by Celia Jane. 

Jerry entered the room slowly and took a 
seat on the chair without a back. He said 
23 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


nothing at all and finally Mother ’Larkey 
looked up at him. 

“Why don’t you ask for fifty cents, too?” 
she inquired. “Don’t you want to see the 
circus?” 

“Yes’m,” replied Jerry, “ but I ain’t got 
no mother.” 

“What difference does that make?” she 
asked, in a voice sharper than she was accus- 
tomed to use in speaking to Jerry. “Have n’t 
I done everything a mother could — ” 

“Yes ’m,” Jerry interrupted hastily, for 
he did n’t want her to think he thought that . 
“But it said to ask your mother for fifty cents 
and I ain’t got none to ask.” 

“Sure and you have n’t, you blessed boy,” 
said Mother ’Larkey. “If I had it to give, 
you would n’t need a mother to ask it of. 
I wish I could send all of you to the circus 
and go myself.” 

“We never get to go no place,” muttered 
Danny gloomily. 

“It costs money to go to places,” his 
mother explained, “and there ’s no money in 
the house. It ’s all I ’ve been able to do to 
put enough food in your hungry mouths to 
24 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 


keep soul and body together and to get 
enough clothes to keep you looking decent 
and respectable. I was counting on some 
money from Mrs. Green to-day, to buy a 
little meat for supper and get some more 
cough medicine for Kathleen, but she was n’t 
satisfied with the dress and I ’ve got to do 
part of it over before she will pay me.” 

“Is Kathleen’s cough medicine all gone?” 
Jerry asked, suddenly feeling hot and un- 
comfortable. 

“Yes, and she ought to have some more 
right this minute. Summer coughs are bad 
things for babies.” 

Jerry went to Kathleen and she welcomed 
him by raising her arms and gurgling at him. 
He put his face gently against hers and she 
patted his head and tugged at his hair. 

And all the time Jerry felt guiltier and 
guiltier and the half-dollar in his pocket 
seemed to become bigger and heavier. He 
was relieved when he heard Celia Jane, re- 
covered from her crying, asking : 

“Did you ever see a circus, Mother?” 

“Yes, once. Dan took me to see one in the 
city right after we were married. If he was 
25 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


living, he would find a way to take you all 
and him liking the fun and the noise and the 
crowd and all.” 

“Some day I ’ll be big enough to earn lots 
of money and take us all to the circus,” 
asserted Danny. “And Jerry, too.” 

“Sure and you will,” his mother said. 
“And now, if you children will pick me some 
gooseberries. I’ll make you a gooseberry pie 
for supper.” 

Jerry did not join the rest in the scamper 
for cups and a pan nor follow them out into 
the back yard. He patted Kathleen’s head 
and then went into the kitchen when he had 
heard the screen door slam and knew the 
Mullarkey children were all out of the house. 
He took down a bottle from the shelf by the 
table and slipped quietly out to the street. 

When he was out of sight of the house he 
looked to see if the half-dollar were still in his 
pocket. The sight of it made him recall 
vividly all the joys that he would miss if he 
did n’t get to see the circus. He took the 
coin out of his pocket and looked at it and 
the longer he looked the slower grew his 
pace. Then he thought of Kathleen and the 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 


summer cough that Mother ’Larkey said was 
bad for babies, and his lips suddenly closed in 
a firm, straight line. He clutched the half- 
dollar tightly in one hand, the bottle in the 
other, and set out as fast as his legs would 
carry him. He did not dare waste a moment 
for fear the temptation to change his mind 
would prove too great to be resisted. 

Not once did he slacken speed till he 
reached the corner drug store. Speechless 
for lack of breath, he passed the bottle over 
the counter to Mr. Barton. 

“Well, Jerry, what is it this time?” asked 
the clerk. 

Jerry panted a moment before he could 
reply. 

“Some more of — that cough medicine — 
for Kathleen.” 

“That won’t take long,” said Mr. Barton. 
“All I ’ve got to do is to pour it from a big 
bottle into this little one.” 

He disappeared behind the prescription 
case, but was back long before Jerry’s pulse 
had had time to slow down to its customary 
beat. 

“There you are,” he said. “Forty-five cents.” 

27 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Jerry passed over the precious half-dollar. 
The pang of regret at the thought of circus 
delights, once so nearly his, now beyond his 
reach, he resolutely forced out of his mind 
every time he caught himself thinking about 
it. He tried to whistle to help forget the 
circus, but to his surprise not a sound issued 
from his lips. They were too dry to whistle. 
Then he suddenly heard the drug clerk 
exclaim : 

“ Gee whillikens ! This is the identical 
half-dollar you found this afternoon ! I can 
tell it by the black mark on it.” 

“Yes, it is,” Jerry admitted in a forlorn tone. 

“So you told about finding it — ” 

“No, I didn’t,” interrupted Jerry, “but 
Kathleen was all out of cough medicine and 
Mother ’Larkey didn’t have no money.” 

“I see. Then you told what — ” 

“No, I just got the bottle and brought it 
here.” 

Mr. Barton whistled. 

“Jerry, you ’re some boy, and there ’s my 
hand on it.” 

Jerry felt himself flushing as he took the 
proffered hand which shook his warmly. 

28 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 


“Grit!” exclaimed Mr. Barton. “Pure 
grit. That ’s what I call it, if anybody 
should ask you. And you won’t get to see the 
circus at all.” 

“I guess Kathleen’s cough is more im- 
portant than the circus,” replied Jerry. 
“Summer coughs are bad for babies.” 

“You ’re right there, but I ’m mighty sorry 
you can’t go. I know how my two boys will 
feel if they have to stay away.” 

He rang up the forty-five cents and returned 
a nickel to Jerry. 

“There, I guess you ’ve earned the right 
to spend the nickel on yourself.” 

“Give me a nickel’s worth of cough drops 
— the kind with honey in ’em,” said Jerry. 

“You don’t want cough drops, Jerry. 
Here ’s some good candy. It ’s got lots of 
lemon in it.” 

“Kathleen likes the cough drops with 
honey in ’em,” explained Jerry. “She 
doesn’t cough so bad after eating one of 
them.” 

“Well, you beat my time, Jerry! You 
must like Kathleen an awful lot.” 

“I do,” admitted Jerry in a low voice, as 

29 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


a customer entered the store. He took the bag 
of cough drops and darted out through the door, 
but not too quickly to overhear Mr. Barton 
saying to the man who had entered : 

“That boy ’s got enough sand to supply all 
the contractors in town. Plucky as they 
make ’em.” 

Jerry was not quite sure that he understood 
what Mr. Barton meant about the sand, but 
his saying that he was plucky made him feel 
glad and uncomfortable at the same time. 
Somehow it didn’t seem quite so hard to 
have given up seeing the circus. He wouldn’t 
mind not seeing the elephant jump the fence 
— well, not so very much. He could look at 
the billboard poster all he wanted to and that 
would be almost as good. 

He started home on a run but soon slackened 
his speed, and the nearer he got the slower 
became his pace. He didn’t want Danny 
to know that he had bought something for 
Kathleen, for Danny called him “Kathleen’s 
pet” as it was and he didn’t like to be laughed 
at. Perhaps he could sneak in without any of 
them seeing him and put the bottle back on the 
shelf and no one would know how it got full. 
30 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 


The Mullarkey children were still picking 
gooseberries and Mother ’Larkey was still 
in the living room sewing on Mrs. Green’s 
dress. Jerry tiptoed carefully into the kitchen, 
replaced the bottle, stuffed the cough drops 
into his blouse pocket and went into the 
living room, where he squatted down by 
Kathleen. 

Hardly had he done so when the voices of 
the other children coming back to the house 
were heard. 

“Gooseberries all picked?” sighed Mrs. 
Mullarkey. “Then I must be getting 
supper.” 

When she left the room, Jerry fished a 
cough drop out of his pocket and gave it to 
Kathleen. She smiled in delight at sight of it 
and at once popped it into her mouth, cooing 
at Jerry. 

“Mother, why didn’t you make Jerry help 
pick gooseberries?” asked Danny, as soon as 
he entered and caught sight of Jerry. 

“He can’t have any pie, can he, Mother?” 
said Celia Jane. 

“Why, he was out with you,” replied Mrs. 
Mullarkey. “He just this minute came in.” 
31 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“He wasn’t near the gooseberry patch,” 
Danny informed her. 

“He didn’t pick a single gooseberry,” 
Celia Jane interpolated. 

“Nora,” appealed their mother, “you al- 
ways tell the truth. Didn’t Jerry help you ? ” 

“I didn’t see him, Mother. Ask Jerry.” 

“Did you help them, Jerry? Not that it 
makes any difference ; you ’ll get just as big 
a piece of pie as any of them.” 

“No’m, I didn’t,” replied Jerry. His lips 
parted again as though he wanted to say 
more but closed without a word. 

“You ’re such a willing worker, I thought 
Danny was just trying to get even for some- 
thing,” said Mother ’Larkey. 

“Where ’d you go, Jerry ?” asked Chris. 

“Yah! Tell us that,” demanded Danny. 

“I just thought I ’d run over to the drug 
store,” replied Jerry. 

“What did you want to go there for?” 

Jerry said nothing. 

“I bet he found a penny and bought 
himself some candy,” cried Celia Jane, falling 
into the habit that many older people have 
of judging others by themselves. 

32 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 

“ Tandy,” said Kathleen, struck by that 
word, and she pulled the remnant of the 
cough drop out of her mouth and displayed 
it proudly. 

“Jerry, you ate all the rest yourself!” ac- 
cused Celia Jane. “ Greedy, greedy, greedy ! ” 

“Oh, did um buy some tandy for urn’s 
’ittle Tatleen?” mocked Danny. 

“I want some,” said Celia Jane. “Mother, 
make Jerry give me some candy.” 

“It was cough drops for Kathleen,” said 
Jerry. 

“Where ’d you get the money?” Danny 
demanded sharply. 

“Found it after you ran home first to ask for 
fifty cents to see the circus,” Jerry explained. 

“Gee, I never find nothing!” ejaculated 
Danny. “How much was it?” 

Jerry did not reply immediately and Celia 
Jane, watching him sharply, was at once full 
cry right on his trail. 

“I bet it was a whole lot more ’n five 
cents an’ he bought something for himself. 
How much did you find, Jerry?” 

“It was half a dollar,” Jerry stated, thus 
brought to bay. 


33 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Half a dollar ! ’’exclaimed Danny and Chris. 

“Why, that’s fifty cents !” Celia Jane cried. 

“Enough to buy a ticket to the circus!” 
Danny added. “Where is it? Let ’s see it.” 

“It ’s all gone,” Jerry told his tormentors. 

“Fifty cents! And you spent all of it at 
once!” wailed Celia Jane. 

“That must of bought a whole lot of 
candy,” said Danny. “Fork out. No fair 
holding any back.” 

Jerry produced the small paper bag of 
cough drops and gave it to Mother ’Larkey. 

“They ’re coUgh drops with honey in ’em 
for Kathleen,” he said. “I ain’t eaten one 
of them.” 

“ Give me one, Mother,” pleaded Celia Jane. 

“They ’re for Kathleen,” replied her mother. 
“She needs them and you don’t.” 

“Jerry’s Kathleen’s pet! Jerry’s Kath- 
leen’s little honey cough-drop boy!” chanted 
Danny. 

“Jerry ’s done more for Kathleen than her 
own brothers and sisters have ever done, 
unless it ’s Nora,” declared Mrs. Mullarkey. 
“It ’s no wonder she loves him best.” 

“That ’s not fifty cents’ worth of cough 
34 


THE BLACK HALF-DOLLAR 


drops,” Danny accused. “ Where ’s the rest 
of the money? Make him tell, Mother.” 

Kathleen saved him the necessity of reply- 
ing. 

“Toff meddy,” she gurgled, looking up at 
the shelf where the bottle was kept. “Tatleen 
want toff meddy.” 

“It ’s all gone, Kathleen,” her mother said 
soothingly. 

“No,” said Kathleen, shaking her head 
and pointing up at the bottle. 

“Mercy sakes ! It’s full!” cried Mrs. 
Mullarkey. “I could have sworn I emptied 
it this morning.” 

Then she looked at Jerry, a sudden softening 
coming over her face and into her eyes. 

“Jerry, you went and spent every cent of 
that half-dollar on Kathleen, did n’t you?” 

“You said there was n’t any money in the 
house,” Jerry defended himself, “and that 
Kathleen needed more medicine because sum- 
mer coughs are bad for babies.” 

“The Lord love you, Jerry, I ’m not scold- 
ing you. It ’s more apt to be crying I am 
at the big heart of you. It ’s as big as my 
Dan ’s was. You ’re more like him in heart 
35 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


and disposition than any of his own children, 
unless it ’s Nora. That ’s why I can’t ever 
let them take you away, ever.” 

6 4 Who wants to take Jerry away?” It 
was Nora’s startled voice that asked. 

Jerry’s heart stood still. Had the man with 
the red scar on his face found him at last? 
He looked up at Mother ’Larkey, his lips 
starting to twist. 

“Nobody ’s going to take him away!” said 
Mrs. Mullarkey almost fiercely. 44 Just let 
anybody try it !” 

“Why didn’t you tell us you had fifty 
cents?” asked Danny. 44 1 bet you was 
going to spend it all for yourself for a ticket 
to the circus.” 

44 Mr. Barton told me not to tell,” replied 
Jerry. 44 He said you’d get it away from 
me if you knew I had found it and for me to 
go to the circus all by myself.” 

44 And you gave that up just for Kathleen ?” 
queried Mrs. Mullarkey. 

44 1 guess Kathleen’s cough is much more 
important than any old circus,” said Jerry. 

Mother ’Larkey thereupon gathered Jerry 
up in her arms and kissed him. 

36 


CHAPTER III 

The Width of an Elephant’s Tail 

Jerry tried all the next day and the next 
to think what it was that the picture of the 
elephant jumping the fence almost made him 
remember, but it just would n’t come and 
finally he gave up trying. After playing 
with Kathleen until Mother ’Larkey put her 
in the crib for her afternoon nap, he wandered 
out towards the woodshed from behind which 
he heard the voices of Danny and Celia Jane. 

On the way an idea popped all of a sudden 
into his mind. The dazzling splendor of it 
first brought him to a dead halt and then 
set him running breathlessly to join the 
Mullarkey children. He found them all gath- 
ered about Danny, hungrily watching him 
eat a green apple. 

“ Could n’t we play circus!” he exclaimed, 
in eager excitement at the idea that had 
come to him. 


37 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“ We could if we wanted to,” replied Danny, 
in that superior, ardor-dampening way of 
his. 

Jerry felt his enthusiasm for the idea oozing 
out of his bare toes. “I — Don’t we want to, 
Danny?” 

“Oh, yes, let’s!” cried Nora eagerly. 
“I ’m tired of ante-over and run-sheep-run 
and pump -pump -pull -away — ” 

“And hidin’-go-seek and tree-tag,” inter- 
rupted Celia Jane. She turned to Jerry. 
“How do you play circus?” 

“You just — just 'play it,” he answered. 
“’Maginary you’re an el’funt jumpin’ a 
fence and all.” 

“I ’ll be the el’funt !” cried Danny. 

“I want to be the el’ftfnt,” objected Chris. 

“The el’funt ’s mine,” Jerry asserted and 
he closed his lips tightly. Danny did n’t 
have any right to that elephant. “I saw it 
first,” he added. 

“I said ‘I ’ll be the el’funt’ first, did n’t I ?” 
asked Danny. 

“Jerry orter have first choice,” said Nora, 
the conciliator, “seein’ it was him thought 
of playin’ circus.” 


38 


WIDTH OF AN ELEPHANT’S TAIL 


“I guess I can jump the highest, can’t I?” 
Danny asked in a tone that said as plain as 
day that that settled the matter. 

“It ’s my el’funt !” insisted Jerry. 

“You always take first choice,” Chris 
complained. 

“You could take turns about being el’funt,” 
Nora suggested. 

Jerry wanted with all his soul to play that 
sublime elephant jumping the fence and he 
summoned up all his courage. “I won’t 
play,” cried he, with a suspicious quiver of his 
lips. “I won’t! I won’t!” 

“I ’ll let you be el’funt part of the time,” 
Danny promised, “just to keep you from 
cry in’.” 

“I ain’t goin’ to cry,” returned Jerry hotly. 
“I ain’t!” 

“We can’t have a circus with just a el’funt,” 
said Celia Jane. 

“Of course, we can’t,” said Danny de- 
cisively and turned to Jerry. “What else ’ll 
we have?” 

“Couldn’t we have more ’n one el’funt?” 
Jerry asked hopefully. 

“What’d we want with more ’n one 
39 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


el’funt?” Danny queried in scorn. “I guess 
one eFfunt ’s enough for one circus. Any- 
way, we want something besides el’funts.” 

“What?” asked Jerry. “I ain’t never 
seen a circus.” 

“No more have I,” replied Danny. 

“ Can’t you ’maginary something ? ” asked 
Celia Jane. 

“We could ‘’maginary things’,” interposed 
Nora, “but they might not be in a circus.” 

“There’s more ’n one circus picture up,” 
said Jerry. “Darn Darner said there was 
one at Jenkins’ corner and one on Jeffreys’ 
barn. P’raps they ’ll tell us what ’s in a 
circus.” 

“Of coiirse,” said Danny. “It’s funny I 
did n’t think of that. It ’s usually me who 
thinks of everything. I ’ll be the first one 
at Jenkins’ corner,” and he was off at a run. 

Thereupon they all followed at full speed. 
Any other rate of progress was too slow for 
them. Jerry ran as hard as he could, leaving 
Celia Jane behind and keeping right at 
Nora’s side. It was more than a quarter of 
a mile to Jenkins’ corner and Jerry felt that 
his legs were ready to give out and send him 
40 


WIDTH OF AN ELEPHANT’S TAIL 


sprawling in the street before he got there, 
but he kept running just the same. Celia 
Jane tagged along, far in the rear, and called 
to Jerry to wait for her, but a boy could n’t 
stop and wait for a girl without Danny’s 
making fun of him, so, as much as Jerry would 
have liked to rest, he kept pantingly on. He 
was glad to plump down flat on the ground 
in front of the billboard and rest till Nora 
and Celia Jane arrived. 

“Whoopee ! I ’ll be the clown !” exclaimed 
Chris, pointing to the poster which showed 
trapeze performers turning somersaults in the 
air, a clown playing ringmaster to a dancing 
white pony and a girl walking a tight rope. 

“I’ll be the dancin’ pony!” cried Celia 
Jane. 

“I ’ll be the rope-walker,” Nora said. 

“And what’ll I be?” asked Jerry plain- 
tively, feeling left entirely out in the cold. 

“Wliy did n’t you speak up and grab onto 
something before they were all taken?” 
asked Danny. “You Ve got a tongue, ain’t 
you?” 

“He could swing up in the air hanging by 
his hands,” Celia Jane suggested. 

41 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“We ain’t got no net like they have in the 
picture to catch him if he falls,” Nora objected. 

“That would be too dangerous for us kids 
to try,” Danny stated. “Maybe the picture 
on Jeffreys’ barn will suggest something.” 

Again they were off at a run. It was not 
far to the barn, where they all squatted on the 
ground, nonplussed at the picture of half a 
dozen funny little animals balancing toy 
balloons on their noses. 

“What are they?” Jerry asked. 

“They ’re some kind of a fish,” returned 
Danny promptly. , 

“Fish nothing!” exclaimed Chris. “Who 
ever saw a fish with hair on it ? They ’re some 
kind of animal.” 

“ They ’ve got fins,” retorted Danny. “I’d 
like to know what kind of animals ’s got fins. 
Tell me that.” 

“I don’t know,” Chris confessed, “but 
what kind of fish has hair? ” 

“This kind,” said Danny authoritatively. 

“Mebbe it ’s half fish and half animal,” 
Jerry ventured. 

“Who ever heard — ” Danny began but was 
interrupted by Nora. 

42 


WIDTH OF AN ELEPHANT’S TAIL 


“It tells under the; picture what they are,” 
she said. “Trained s-e-a-l-s, seals. That’s 
what rich women get their coats from.” 

“Then Jerry can be a trained seal,” 
said Danny. “He can have a ball of car- 
pet rags for a balloon to balance on his 
nose.” 

“I don’t think I could*” Jerry protested. 
“I know it would fall off.” 

“ Not if you practise enough,” returned 
Danny. “Besides, that’s all that’s left for 
you. I guess if one seal can throw it to 
another and that seal catch it on its nose like 
it does in the picture, you ought to be able 
to balance it on your nose. All you ’ll have 
to do is to lie on your stummick on the 
ground and throw back your head.” 

So it was decided that Jerry should play 
the part of a trained seal in their circus. 
Mother ’Larkey got out a ball of carpet rags, 
when they reached home, for Jerry to balance 
on his nose in place of a balloon, and gave 
Danny an old green wrapper, just ready to 
be cut up into carpet rags, out of which to 
make his elephant costume. She made Chris 
a clown costume out of a piece of old white 
43 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


skirt upon which she sewed large dots of red 
and blue cloth. 

The two following days were busy ones for 
Jerry if not quite so happy as for the Mul- 
larkey children. He had made up his mind, 
after practising until his back, chest and neck 
ached from throwing his head back to balance 
the ball of carpet rags on his nose, that he 
did n’t like trained seals and was n’t going 
to care to be one at the circus. Chris’s 
clown costume was finished and looked very 
much like a white union suit miles too big 
for him. 

Nora had become quite proficient at walk- 
ing the tight rope, stretched between two 
poles in the yard about ten feet apart and two 
feet from the ground, if she remembered to 
keep one end of her balancing pole touching 
the ground all the time. Mrs. Mullarkey had 
decided that Celia Jane did n’t need any 
costume to play the part of the dancing pony 
except her good, white dress that she probably 
would n’t ruin this time as all she had to do 
was to dance. 

Danny was having more than a peck of 
trouble. His elephant costume had all sorts 
44 


WIDTH OF AN ELEPHANT’S TAIL 


of queer mishaps. He wanted to make it all 
himself, even to the sewing, and he could n’t 
sew for sour apples, as Nora very readily 
told him. Two small palm-leaf fans, fastened 
to an old cap of his father’s so that they 
flopped with every movement, served as the 
elephant’s ears, while out of an old brown coat 
sleeve Danny had fashioned what passed for 
an elephant’s trunk. He fastened it with a 
string to the visor of the cap. 

Danny was stuffing the leg of an old pair 
of blue trousers with straw, flattening it out 
until it bore a faint resemblance to the 
paddle-shaped tail of a beaver. 

“What is that you’re making?” Jerry 
asked. 

“Why, that’s the el’funt’s tail!” said 
Danny. “Anybody could tell that.” 

He held it proudly up, displaying it in all 
its blue glory. 

“El’funts’ tails are small like a rope,” 
Jerry remarked. 

Danny laughed derisively. “Much you 
know about it ! I guess a el’funt’s about the 
biggest animal in the world and it would n’t 
have a little ole tail like a rope.” 

45 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“They are little, like a rope,” Jerry insisted. 

“How do you know they are?” asked 
Danny. “Just tell me how you know any- 
thing about it.” 

“I don’t know, but I know,” Jerry said, 
feeling all his obstinacy aroused by Danny’s 
air of conscious superiority. 

“There, you just said you didn’t know,” 
Celia Jane interposed, going to her elder 
brother’s aid, as she always did in a dispute 
with Jerry. 

“I did n’t neither,” asseverated Jerry. 

“You said you didn’t know,” insisted 
Celia Jane. 

“I don’t know how I know,” said Jerry, 
“but I know el’funts have little tails — like 
a rope.” 

“Have you ever been to a circus?” asked 
Chris. 

“Not that I remember.” 

“Have you ever seen a el’funt?” pursued 
Danny. 

“N-n-no, but it kind of seems as if I 
almost had.” 

“I guess you ’d know if you had seen a 
el’funt, would n’t you?” 

46 


WIDTH OF AN ELEPHANT’S TAIL 


“Y-y-yes,” responded Jerry doubtfully. 

“Then if you ain’t ever been to a circus or 
seen a el’funt, I guess you don’t know what 
you are talking about.” 

“El’funts’ tails are little, like a rope,” 
Jerry insisted. 

“Like a cow’s tail?” asked Celia Jane. 

Jerry nodded assent. “Only they have n’t 
so much hair on the end,” he added. 

“ A el’funt’s a hundred times as big as a cow, 
I guess,” interposed Danny, “an’ it would n’t 
have a little tail like a cow. I guess I know 
more about it than you do. I’m older, 
ain’t I?” 

“Yes,” Jerry admitted, “but they are little.” 

Nora now interposed. “Why don’t you 
go see the picture of the elephant jumpin’ 
the fence and find out?” she asked. 

“Of course,” said Chris. “The picture’ll 
show whether they ’re small like a rope or 
great big ones.” 

“I ’ll beat you there,” challenged Danny, 
as he dropped the flat, beaver-like elephant’s 
tail and darted at a run out of the woodshed, 
followed by the others. As they lined up in 
front of the gaudy, delectable poster, there 
47 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


came a simultaneous gasp of amazement from 
all of them. 

“ Why, it ain’t got no tail at all !” exclaimed 
Celia Jane. 

True enough, there was no tail in evidence, 
as the elephant seemed to be headed straight 
towards them. Jerry flushed as they all 
turned and looked accusingly at him. 

“Yah!” exclaimed Danny. “Mr. Smarty 
Know-it-all did n’t know so much, after all !” 

“Mebbe you just can’t see it, but it’s 
there,” suggested Nora. 

“That ’s so,” Danny reluctantly admitted. 
“A el’funt ’s so big that when you stand right 
in front of it, its tail might not show at all, 
no matter how big it was.” 

“A little tail would n’t,” Jerry said quickly. 

“A big one wouldn’t either,” Celia Jane 
asserted, taking sides against Jerry. “A 
el’funt ’s enough bigger to hide its tail.” 

“If it was very big it would show,” said Jerry. 

“The el’funt I play is goin’ to have a tail 
all right,” Danny informed the children col- 
lectively. “I ain’t goin’ to all the work of 
makin’ a tail and then not wear it. I guess 
a el’funt ’s got some kind of a tail, anyway.” 

48 


CHAPTER IV 

Jerry Learns that o-u-t Spells Out 

The first and, as it turned out, the last 
performance of their circus took place that 
afternoon. Jerry felt a thrill of expectancy 
as they began to don their costumes. Once 
he thought he almost heard again that low, 
cheerful strumming that had seemed to beat 
upon his ears when he first saw the poster of 
the elephant jumping the fence. He said 
nothing about it and soon lost all recollection 
of the rollicking strains in the anticipation 
of the circus joys that he was about to behold. 

Chris and Danny got into their costumes in 
the woodshed while Celia Jane went into the 
house and put on her white dress, the one 
she wore on Sundays. Mrs. Mullarkey had 
decided that Nora did n’t need any special 
costume to be a rope-walker and that all 
Jerry needed to be a trained seal was a sort 
of apron made out of a gunny sack to protect 
his clothes while he crawled about on his 


49 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


stomach. He did not put this on at once but 
watched Danny getting into the skin of the 
elephant, wishing with all his heart that he 
might be the elephant, even if its tail was 
big and flat instead of being small like a rope. 

It might have proved a mirth-provoking 
elephant to others had there been others 
present to see it, but to Jerry’s eager imagi- 
nation there was nothing laughable about it. 
The green wrapper hung most loosely about 
Danny’s small, slim figure, great folds almost 
touching the ground, while the brown trunk 
and the blue, beaver-like tail waggled and 
wiggled about until they met between the 
front and hind legs of the elephant. 

There was something about that awkward 
elephant that made Jerry feel all friendly 
inside and struck the chord of envy in his 
heart. He was not at all inclined to laugh 
when the cap with the very floppy palm-leaf- 
fan-ears attached fell off, as Danny started 
to gallop around the woodshed on all fours 
to see if the costume was all right. 

Celia Jane now came dancing out of the 
house in her white frock, her hair loose and 
flowing for the pony’s mane, while pinned 
50 


JERRY LEARNS O-U-T SPELLS OUT 


to the back of her dress, at the waist line, 
was her mother’s switch to represent the 
pony’s tail. The strands of gray in the black 
hair did not match with the brown of the 
pony’s mane, but that presented no difficulties 
to the imagination of the circus performers. 

“Come on!” Celia Jane called. “Let’s 
play circus. I ’m all ready.” 

“Wait a minute, can’t you?” complained 
Danny. “I guess I ’m the head of this circus. 
I ’ve got the biggest part and I ain’t quite 
ready. Just hold your horses.” 
i “Whoa !” cried Celia Jane. “I ’m just one 
pony. Get up!” She flapped her side with 
one hand, as though urging a horse to quicken 
his pace, and galloped out back of the wood- 
shed where the circus “tent” had been set up 
and began prancing and dancing and preening 
about. Jerry was torn between desire to 
watch her graceful whirling and pirouetting 
and to keep fascinated eyes on the green 
elephant. He just had to stay and see if the 
elephant’s ears fell off again. But Danny 
was equal to the occasion and tied the cap 
on with a piece of string. 

“Celia Jane, you just come back here,” 
51 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


he called. “ I guess the elephant has to enter 
the circus ahead of the horse. Horses always 
get scared of el’funts unless they ’re behind 
where they can see them. How do you expect 
us to parade if you ’re there already?” 

“All right,” replied Celia Jane and came 
prancing back into the woodshed, “ but hurry.” 

“I ’ll be first,” said Danny, “an — ” 

“An’ I ’ll be second !” cried Chris. 

“I’m third!” Nora and Celia Jane ex- 
claimed together. 

Jerry said nothing. He knew where his 
place would be, — the very tail end of the 
parade. 

“Boom!” sang out Danny and again, 
“Boom !” 

“What ’s that for?” asked Chris. 

“It’s the music so that the people will 
know the circus is about to begin,” replied 
Danny. “They always have music for the 
parade an’ everything. Darn Darner said so.” 

“Let ’s sing then,” suggested Nora. 

“Sing what ?” queried Danny crossly, seeing 
a threat to diminish his importance in the circus. 

“We might sing ‘Heigho, the cherry-o,’” 
said Celia Jane. 


i 


52 


JERRY LEARNS O-U-T SPELLS OUT 

“ ‘ I Went to the Animal Fair ’ will be 
much more appropriate,” Nora suggested. 

“All right, sing,” consented Danny, “but 
the crowd ’s gettin’ restless ; I can hear them 
stampin’ and whistlin’ !” 

“I ’ll start it,” said Nora. “All ready.” 

Thus the parade started and entered the 
main circus tent, which consisted of a pole in 
the center, with no canvas at all, to the 
strain of, 

I went to the animal fair ; 

The birds and the beasts were there ; 

The little raccoon, by the light of the moon, 

Was combing his auburn hair. 

The monkey he got drunk, 

Ran up the elephant’s trunk, 

The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees 
And what became of the monkey-monkey-monk ? 

Jerry tried to sing, too, but he had a very 
hard time, for he could n’t crawl as fast as 
the others walked and the carpet-rag balloon 
would n’t stay balanced on his nose but kept 
rolling off to the ground. The rest of the 
parade was halfway around the ring (marked 
by a circle of sawdust which Danny had made 
after sawing wood energetically for half a 
53 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

day to get enough sawdust) when the trained 
seal had just reached the main entrance. 

“Run and catch up with the parade,” 
came Danny’s voice through the circus music. 
44 We can’t have the parade split in two that 
way.” 

The trained seal jumped up on his hind 
feet carrying the balloon under a forefoot, and 
ran until he caught up with Celia Jane ; then 
he plumped down on his stomach again. 

Jerry was very hot and flushed and the 
muscles of his back and neck ached. He 
tried desperately to balance the ball of carpet 
rags on his nose, but it kept rolling off, and 
Jerry had to scramble after it and the parade 
was soon away ahead again. In desperation, 
he held the balloon on his nose with one 
hand and tried to creep ahead with but one 
arm and his legs as motive power. His 
progress was slower than ever. 

He could see Danny — or, rather, the ele- 
phant — stalking majestically ahead to the 
strains of “I Went to the Animal Fair,” his 
trunk and his tail wobbling about until they 
met under his body, and the palm-leaf ears 
flopping with every step. Jerry felt hurt 
54 


JERRY LEARNS O-U-T SPELLS OUT 


and out of sorts as he panted from the exertion 
of trying to crawl on one arm. He had 
suggested playing circus and he ought to 
have been allowed to play the part of the 
elephant. There was no fun in being a trained 
seal balancing a balloon on its nose, as there 
was in being a green elephant with floppy 
ears and wobbly tail and trunk. It would 
serve that greedy Danny just right if he should 
refuse to play in his old circus. 

Jerry saw that he was again falling far in the 
rear and tried to scramble on faster. Then, 
of course, the balloon fell off and Jerry was 
almost in tears as he jumped after it. 

Then the music of the parade came to a 
sudden end. The rest of the performers were 
at the main entrance, having marched clear 
around the ring while Jerry had not covered 
much more than half the distance. 

“ Can’t you hurry any?” asked Danny. 
“You ’re spoilin’ the circus all the time, ’way 
behind like that.” 

“I can’t crawl as fast as you can walk,” 
answered Jerry, in a voice that threatened 
to break into a sob. 

“I guess a trained seal had orter crawl as 
55 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


fast as a man can walk/’ said Danny, “or 
how could they have them in circuses?” 

“I ’m cornin’ as fast as I can,” returned 
Jerry. “I wish you ’d just try bein’ a trained 
seal for a time and see how fast you can 
crawl on your stummick.” Jerry rose to his 
hands and knees, holding the ball of carpet 
rags in his teeth, and progressed much faster. 

“Who ever heard of a trained seal carry in’ 
a balloon in his teeth?” Danny protested. 
“I guess his teeth would go through the 
balloon and let all the air out.” 

“ Let ’s not have no trained seal,” pleaded 
Jerry. “It ain’t no fun.” 

“We got to have a trained seal,” replied 
Danny. 

“You be it then,” suggested Jerry, “an’ 
let me be the el’funt. You said I could part 
of the time.” 

“I ’m going to be the el’funt,” proclaimed 
Danny. “The circus ain’t even begun yet.” 

“I won’t be a trained seal, so I won’t,” 
said Jerry, at last catching up with the 
parade. “The balloon won’t stay on my 
nose and my neck hurts and I’ve cut my hand 
on a piece of glass or a splinter or something 
56 


JERRY LEARNS O-U-T SPELLS OUT 


till it bleeds.” He held up one hand with a 
little trickle of blood on it. “ I want to be 
something else. I won’t play if I ’ve got to 
be a trained seal any more.” 

“All right,” Danny acquiesced, after a 
moment’s thought, “you can be the audience. 
We need an audience to clap their hands and 
holler so ’s we ’ll know the crowd likes us and 
we ’re doin’ all right. This circus can get 
along without no trained seal.” 

“I don’t want to be the audience,” replied 
Jerry dismally, seeing that, as the audience, 
he would have nothing to do with the circus. 

Nora now put in a word. “Let ’s count 
out,” she said, “and the one who ’s counted 
out will be the audience.” 

“I guess not,” replied Danny emphatically, 
but after Celia Jane had whispered something 
in his ear, he considered a moment, looked 
at Jerry and then whispered, something to 
Nora. 

Nora looked at Jerry and counted on her 
fingers rapidly. Then she counted on her 
fingers again, after a quick glance at Danny. 
She nodded to Danny, who said : 

“All right, whoever ’s counted out will 

57 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


be the audience. You count out, Nora.” 
Starting with Danny and pointing to a child 
in rotation with each word, Nora chanted and 
counted : 

“ 4 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. 

All good children go to heaven. 

O-u-t spells out.’ ” 

Her finger was pointing at Jerry. 

“ Jerry’s out!” cried Celia Jane, skipping 
about. “ He ’s the audience ! ” 

“I won’t be no audience,” said Jerry. 

“ You ’ll have to be,” asserted Danny, “ you 
was counted out.” 

“I won’t be! I won’t play!” cried Jerry. 
He threw down his carpet-rag balloon, took 
off the gunny -sack apron, tossed it on top of 
the balloon and ran to the house. 

“Cry baby !” shouted Danny after him, but 
Jerry did not even wait to refute that charge, 
for he knew he was in danger of proving it if 
he remained out there a moment longer. 

Jerry felt the hot tears start to come as the 
screen door slammed after him. He dashed 
them angrily out of his eyes and ran up the 
stairs to the room he shared with Danny and 
Chris. If Mother ’Larkey had been at home 
58 


JERRY LEARNS O-U-T SPELLS OUT 


and not away sewing for Mrs. Moran, he 
would have gone to her in his bitter dis- 
appointment, sure of finding comfort in her 
arms as he had so many times. 

It was not fair for Danny to take the part 
of the elephant away from him and not even 
let him play it for a teeny little while, as he 
had promised he would. For two cents he 
would run away as he had from the man with 
the — fhe scarred face. He looked quickly 
around, half-fearful, as always, that that man 
might have learned where he was and be 
lurking around the corner ready to pounce 
upon him. The room was empty and he took 
a long breath. He would run away if it 
were n’t for Mother ’Larkey and for little 
Kathleen who always cried when he even 
said anything about running away. He heard 
the screen door slam shut after a time and 
Nora’s gentle footsteps coming up the stair- 
way. He turned his back to the door. 

“Jerry,” pleaded Nora’s coaxing voice, 
“come on out and play. Danny didn’t 
mean anything.” 

Jerry did not answer. He did not even look 
around. 


59 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“ Danny wants you to play with us/’ con- 
tinued Nora. “ Won’t you ? ” 

“No,” Jerry replied at length. 

“Why won’t you?” 

“He did n’t play fair.” 

“I ’ll count over again, Jerry, so ’s I ’ll be 
the — ” The voice stopped and then con- 
tinued chokily, “ — the audience.” 

Jerry knew what it cost her to say that, 
but he hardened his heart. “I don’t want 
to play no more,” he said. 

“ Please do, Jerry. I ’m sorry I did n’t play 
fair, Jerry.” 

“I won’t,” pouted Jerry. “He said I could 
be the el’funt some of the time.” 

“Mebbe he ’ll let you after while, after he ’s 
tired of playin’ it,” suggested Nora, without 
any great fervor of conviction in her voice. 
“I ’ll ask him to.” 

With that Nora left the room. He won- 
dered if she could persuade Danny to let 
him be the elephant part of the time. He 
might play then, if Danny coaxed him to. 

He heard the screen slam after Nora and 
waited, listening for it to go slam-bang much 
louder. That would mean that Danny was 
60 


JERRY LEARNS O-U-T SPELLS OUT 

coming to let him play elephant. Danny 
always let the door go shut slam-bang. He 
waited a long time and then he heard the 
shouting of the children. They were playing 
circus without him ! Danny would n’t let 
him be the elephant. Very well, if they 
did n’t want him around and wouldn’t let 
him play with them, he would run /away. 
Danny would be sorry then. Perhaps he 
would be killed on a railway track or some- 
thing and Danny would cry over his dead 
body, he ’d be so sorry he did n’t let him be 
the elephant. 

That thought comforted him and he began 
gathering up the things he wanted to take 
with him. There was the fur cap that Mother 
’Larkey had made for him out of an old muff 
of hers, the winter before. He could n’t 
leave that behind, nor yet the overcoat which 
she had made for him out of an old coat of her 
husband’s just after Mr. Mullarkey had died. 
The other things he did n’t care much about. 
Yes, after all, he would take the ragged, fuzzy 
cloth dog that Kathleen had insisted on giving 
him. The dog had lost an ear, a forepaw and 
one eye ; still he cherished it because Kathleen 
61 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


had given it to him of her own free will, some- 
thing that Danny nor Chris nor Celia Jane 
nor even Nora had ever done. 

He would wear the cap and overcoat, even 
if it was summer ; then he would n’t get so 
tired carrying them. He put on the fur cap, 
pulling it well down over his ears, and slipped 
into the overcoat. Slowly he took up the 
woolly dog and started down the stairs. 
Then he remembered th,e red mittens which a 
lady had brought him at Christmas, and re- 
turned to get them. He put them on care- 
fully, smoothing them over his hands, and 
then went downstairs and out by the front 
door, prepared for any kind of weather. 

He was going to run away again, as he had 
from that man with the scarred face. He 
heard the children shouting at their play and 
decided he would first watch them a minute 
and perhaps let Danny know what he had 
driven him into doing. He went down the 
alley which led past the woodshed, behind 
which the circus performance was going on, 
and stopped to watch with his face wedged 
between two pickets of the fence. 

Nora was walking the rope slowly. She 


JERRY LEARNS O-U-T SPELLS OUT 


was doing it very well as long as she kept one 
end of the balancing pole on the ground, but 
when she got halfway across the rope, the 
end of the pole was so far behind that she 
could n’t steady herself with it. She tried to 
drag it up even with her and in so doing lost 
her balance and had to jump to the ground. 
As she straightened up, she saw Jerry’s face 
between the palings. 

“There ’s' Jerry !” she called to Danny. 

“Thought you would play, after all,” Danny 
remarked. 

“I ’m not,” said Jerry. 

“He ’s got his cap on !” laughed Celia Jane. 
“What ’ve you got your cap on for, Jerry ? ” 

“And your overcoat?” said Nora. 

“And your mittens?” chimed in Chris. 
“You ain’t cold, are you?” 

“I ’m running away,” Jerry responded, ad- 
dressing no one in particular. He tried to say 
it indifferently as though it were a matter of 
everyday occurrence, this running away, but 
in spite of himself a note of pride crept into 
his voice. None of them had ever run away. 

“Running away !” gasped Celia Jane in an 
awed voice. 


63 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Oh, Jerry, don’t!” pleaded Nora. 

Danny stared at him in open-mouthed 
amazement. 

“I ’m running away,” Jerry repeated and 
sat down on the ground by the fence where he 
had an unobstructed view of the circus. 


64 


CHAPTER V 

The Green Elephant Buys an Audience 

The Mullarkey children regarded Jerry for 
a long time without a word. 

Jerry, knowing that for once he had Danny 
at a disadvantage, wanted to prolong that 
pleasant sensation. 

“I ’m running away,” he repeated, without 
stirring from the fence. 

“What’ll mother do?” Danny asked 
from underneath the elephant’s trunk and 
Jerry knew from the earnestness of his voice 
that Danny was scared. “What do you 
want to run away for?” 

“Because,” replied Jerry. 

“That ’s no reason,” Chris stated. 

“What’ll become of you?” Danny asked, 
drawing closer to the fence, the elephant’s 
beaver-like blue tail dragging forlornly on 
the ground. 

“I dunno,” Jerry replied carelessly. 

65 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“You won’t find many folks who ’d bring 
you home like father did and keep you,” 
Danny pursued. 

“I ’m going to run away,” was all that 
Jerry replied. 

“What’ll you do for something to eat?” 
demanded Chris, in a tone that showed ad- 
miration for a boy not afraid to run away, 
even if he was n’t a Mullarkey. 

“I dunno,” said Jerry, “but I ’ll find a 
way.” 

“Come on an’ play, Jerry,” coaxed Danny, 
“an’ you can be the el’funt the next time we 
play circus.” 

“I want to be the el’funt this time,” said 
Jerry. 

“You can’t be this time, because you ’re 
too little for the costume to fit you,” Danny 
told him. “ It’ll have to be cut down an’ 
made over for you. It ’s a little too big for 
me an’ it ’s awfully hard work actin’ as a 
el’funt would when your skin ’s so loose it 
gets in the way of your feet when you walk.” 

Jerry had n’t thought of that but it looked 
reasonable to him. He hesitated and Danny, 
seeing his advantage, was quick to push it. 

66 


ELEPHANT BUYS AN AUDIENCE 


“Besides, mother wouldn’t like it if you 
ran away. She ’d think I was to blame when 
I ’m not at all. I never even once thought 
of your runnin’ away. You thought of it 
yourself, now did n’t you ? ” 

“Yes,” Jerry admitted. 

“Mother ’d think I had done something to 
you when I ain’t, have IP” Danny appealed. 

“You would n’t let me play — ” Jerry began 
but was interrupted by Danny’s saying quickly : 

“You can next time we play circus, when 
I ’ve had a chance to make the el’funt skin 
over for you.” 

That did not seem inducement enough for 
Jerry and he decided to continue his inter- 
rupted running away. He rose and turned 
slowly away from the fence and tried to 
imitate Darn Darner’s off-hand style of leave- 
taking. “Well, so long, fellows,” he called 
nonchalantly over his shoulders, “I must be 
on my way.” 

“Good-by, Jerry,” said Nora. 

“Oh, Jerry ! Don’t go !” pleaded Celia Jane. 

“You stay an’ be audience for this circus,” 
said Danny quickly, “an’ I’ll give you one 
of my tops.” 


67 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Jerry returned to the fence. “The one 
with the red on it?” he asked. 

“No, the other one.” 

“It ’s broken,” Jerry objected. 

“An’ I ’ll give you two fishhooks,” Danny 
hurriedly promised, “an’ a line an’ pole, an’ 
a horseshoe nail.” 

“The rusty one!” cried Jerry, in a tone 
that was sarcastic. 

Danny hesitated, swallowed quickly and 
responded, “No, the shiny one.” 

“I don’t want no fishin’ pole an’ all,” said 
Jerry; “an’ the broken top an’ the shiny 
horseshoe ain’t enough.” 

“I ’ll give you my toy pistol,” said Danny. 

“The trigger’s gone,” Jerry objected, “an’ 
a pistol ain’t no good without a trigger.” 

“The golf ball I found in the weeds,” Danny 
offered. 

“I don’t know how to play golf.” 

“Aw, be reasonable, Jerry. I can’t give 
you what you want. I bought it with the 
money I got for mowin’ old man Barnes’s 
yard for a month.” 

“I ’ll be the audience for your white rabbit,” 
Jerry bargained, “an’ I won’t run away.” 

68 


ELEPHANT BUYS AN AUDIENCE 


“You want too much,” Danny objected. 
“’Tain’t as if I could get another rabbit right 
away.” 

“An’ then Mother ’Larkey won’t think 
you made me run away,” pursued Jerry, 
pressing home his advantage. “I won’t say 
nothin’ to her nohow about that.” 

Danny did not reply at once and Jerry 
spoke again. 

“You can keep your top an’ your shiny 
horseshoe nail, too.” 

“You won’t say nothin’ to mother a-tall?” 
Danny weakened. 

“No,” Jerry assured him. 

“Cross your heart, hope to die an’ spit?” 

“Cross my heart, hope to die an’ spit,” 
repeated Jerry, suiting the action to the 
word. 

“All right, you can have the ole rabbit. 
You ’ll have to feed it, though. I would n’t 
raise my finger to feed it, not if it was starvin’ 
to death. I ’d got kinda sick of always havin’ 
to feed it whenever I wanted to do something 
else, anyway.” 

“All right, I ’ll be the audience,” Jerry 
promised, “but the rabbit’s mine.” 

69 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

“Then go in the house and put away your 
cap an’ coat an’ mittens, so ’s mother won’t 
suspect nothin’. An’, Chris, don’t you dare 
ever tell, nor you, Nora, nor you, Celia Jane. 
I ’ll get even with you if it takes to my last 
livin’ day if you do.” 

“We won’t ever tell,” his brother and 
sisters assured him. 

Jerry flew back to the house, and put away 
his winter clothes and the cloth dog Kathleen 
had given him, and then dashed out to the 
circus ground and climbed upon an old barrel 
which Danny and Chris had turned upside 
down for a seat. He kicked his heels against 
its sides and whistled as best he could as a 
sign of the audience’s impatience for the circus 
to begin. 

“We’ll begin all over again,” announced 
Danny and marshaled his three fellow per- 
formers back to the woodshed and led them 
forth in parade to the strains of “I Went to 
the Animal Fair.” Jerry duly applauded the 
parade and waited for the real performance. 

Then the green elephant rose up on his 
hind legs and with one front leg pushed his 
trunk to one side while the voice of Danny 
70 



Flora managed to walk the ten feet to the opposite post 
without falling off. Page 71. 




ELEPHANT BUYS AN AUDIENCE 


Mullarkey announced, “Ladies and gents, 
I ’in pleased to make you acquainted with 
Flora, the lady tight-rope walker, who will 
now walk the tight rope for you an’ I hope 
you ’ll like her.” 

This time, by dragging one end of her 
balancing pole on the ground as she walked 
forward on the rope, Nora, or, as the circus- 
master called her, Flora, managed to walk the 
ten feet to the opposite post without falling 
off. 

Jerry, rejoicing over the possession of the 
white rabbit, applauded her generously. 

“The el’funt will now jump the fence,” 
came the voice of Danny, issuing from the 
mouth of the green elephant. “ Hey, you 
kids ! Get the boards for the fence,” he 
called to Chris and Celia Jane, who had sat 
down on the ground while Nora walked the 
rope. 

With a front foot, the elephant put his 
trunk in place and took a curious little huddled 
run on all fours up to the very low fence made 
of two boards, together not more than ten 
inches high, which Chris and Celia Jane held 
for him, and then half rose on his hind legs 
71 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


and leaped over the fence, palm-leaf -fan-ears 
flopping and brown trunk and blue tail wob- 
bling. No elephant jumping up into the sky 
and balancing the moon on the end of his 
trunk was this, truly, but Jerry thrilled at the 
first jump, imagining what it might have 
been. 

“Wheel” trumpeted the elephant as he 
turned back and jumped the fence again. He 
seemed to develop a very passion for wheeing 
and jumping the fence, returning to the 
charge again and again. 

Jerry clapped his hands and kicked the sides 
of the barrel in approval and laughed at the 
ungainly antics of the jumping elephant, 
but by dint of the frequent repetition of the 
jumping he began to become disappointed 
that Danny did n’t jump higher. He grew 
tired of the performance before Danny wearied 
of jumping the fence. 

“It’s my turn now!” Chris called, after 
Danny had jumped for the twelfth time. 
“Come on, Celia Jane.” 

They dropped the fence and, as there was 
nothing for the green elephant to jump unless 
he could clear the tight rope, two feet from 
72 


ELEPHANT BUYS AN AUDIENCE 


the ground, Danny perforce gave way to the 
dancing pony and the clown. 

Chris was trying to crack an old whip which 
he and Danny had made by braiding three 
strands of leather, with a “cracker” at the 
end, and Celia Jane was dancing gracefully 
about the ring, her tail switching and her 
mane blowing, when the unexpected voice of 
Darn Darner from the alley brought the 
circus to a sudden halt. 

“Hullo! What do you kids think you’re 
doin’ ? ” he asked, in the gruff voice which 
he adopted when he wanted to be particularly 
disagreeable. 

Jerry squirmed around on the barrel until 
he could see Darn. “We ’re playin’ circus,” 
he answered with a feeble, placating smile, 
before the others had recovered from their 
surprise. 

“Yah! You call that a circus? Chris 
can’t even crack the whip.” 

“I can, too, sometimes,” Chris disputed. 

“I ’ll show you how to do it,” Darn offered, 
clambering over the fence. “Here, give me 
the whip ! ” 

He took it out of Chris’s surprised and 

73 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


reluctant fingers and began circling it over his 
head and giving it a sudden jerk. It did n’t 
crack at first, but soon he got the knack of 
it and cracked it loudly as close to Celia 
Jane ’s ears and ankles as he could come with- 
out touching her. 

“Giddap!” he commanded the dancing 
pony. “Show your paces.” That time he 
tried to crack the whip too near Celia Jane 
and the end of the lash wound around her leg. 

“Oh! Oh!” cried the dancing pony, hop- 
ping about on one leg. “That hurt! It 
ain’t no fair makin’ it crack so close an’ I 
won’t play no more.” Half crying from the 
pain, Celia Jane ran to the house, followed 
by Nora. 

“I did n’t mean to hurt you,” Darn called 
to Celia Jane. “The whip must be a little 
too long, or I would nt have sized up the dis- 
tance wrong.” He turned to Danny. “What 
do you think you are?” 

“I ’m a el’funt,” said Danny proudly, “an 5 
I jump the fence like the circus el’funt.” 

“An el’funt!” cried Darn, turning his eyes 
up to the sky. “ And he calls that an el’f unt !” 

“It is a el’funt,” protested Jerry. 

74 


ELEPHANT BUYS AN AUDIENCE 


Darn Darner laughed derisively. 

“You can ’maginary it’s a el’funt,” Chris 
explained. 

“It would take some imagination,” was 
Darn’s only comment on that. 

“What’s wrong with it?” asked Danny. 
“I bet you could n’t do any better.” 

“What ’s wrong with it !” exclaimed Darn. 
“Ask me what ’s right with it. Everything ’s 
wrong with it.” 

“It looks like the picture of the el’funt — 
almost,” defended Jerry. 

“It looks as much like that as I do like a 
giraffe.” 

Danny turned his back on Darn and the 
latter exclaimed : 

“What’s that blue pants leg for, hangin’ 
down from your coat tail ?” 

“Why — why — that ’s the el’funt’s tail,” 
Danny replied reluctantly. 

“ My gorry ! ” cried Darn, giving way to 
shrieks of laughter so that he had to sit down 
on the ground and double up with the par- 
oxysms of mirth. “ An eVfunfs tail! Oh, my 
gorry ! ” and again he rocked back and forth, 
holding his sides. Then he was attacked by 
75 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


a fit of coughing and finally, when he got his 
breath, he said : 

“Don’t you kids know nothing of national 
history ? Hain’t you ever seen a picture of an 
el’funt? Its tail is nothing like that a-tall.” 

“How’s it different?” Danny asked in a 
very meek voice. 

“It ’s small and round, like a rope,” Jerry 
interposed quickly. 

“ Of course it is,” was Darn’s comment. 

“I told him so !” exclaimed Jerry. 

“But how ’d I know that you knew,” asked 
Danny, aggrieved, “when you didn’t know 
how you knew?” 

“I don’t know,” was all the explanation 
that Jerry could give. 

“All I can say is, you ’d better study 
national history, Danny, and learn how the 
four-footed friends of man are made,” re- 
marked Darn. 

“How do you know el’funts’ tails are small 
and round?” asked Chris. 

“Because I ’m no dumb-head and learn 
things.” 

“I ain’t no dumb-head,” protested Chris 
and at the same time Danny asserted : 

76 


ELEPHANT BUYS AN AUDIENCE 


“ Chris ain’t no dumb-head.” 

Jerry saw the green elephant’s front feet 
double up and he jumped down from the 
barrel, a little bit scared. 

“He is, too,” said Darn, “and so are you. 
Jerry Elbow there ’s got more sense than 
both of you put together, even if he ain’t got 
no father and mother.” 

“I haven’t either,” said Jerry. “I jest 
somehow knew one thing Danny did n’t 
about el’funts’ tails. Danny knows lots 
more ’n I do.” 

“I guess you ’d better take that back about 
Chris bein’ a dumb-head,” threatened Danny, 
scowling from under the elephant’s trunk. 

“An’ you ’d better take it back about 
Danny’s bein’ one,” remarked Chris. 

“I won’t any such thing,” retorted Darn. 

“We ’ll make you,” challenged Danny, all 
his Irish fighting blood up. 

“I ’d like to see the kid could make me do 
anything I did n’t want to,” and Darn doubled 
up his fists and flung them out in the air at 
an imaginary adversary. 

“I ’ll show you,” Danny boasted and 
quickly divested himself of the elephant’s skin. 
77 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Take a board,” cautioned Chris, “an’ then 
you can keep him from runnin’ in on you.” 
Chris followed his own advice and Darn, see- 
ing himself attacked from two sides, one of 
his foes armed, decided he would live to fight 
another day and scrambled over the fence. 

“Yah !” he cried in derision from the alley. 
“Dumb-heads! Dumb-heads ! Oh, Chris, 
you blue-eyed beauty, turn around and do 
your duty ! Blue-eyed beauty !” 

He dodged just in time to avoid the board 
which Chris, incensed at that most horrible 
of epithets — for his eyes were blue — had 
hurled at him with all his might. 

“Ole Danny dumb-head! Blue-eyed 
beauty ! Ole Danny dumb-head ! Blue-eyed 
beauty!” chanted Darn, thrusting his face 
between two palings of the fence and sticking 
out his tongue. 

Then Danny picked up a board and, 
flanked by Chris, advanced to the fence, 
whereat Darn took to his heels, shouting, 
“Blue-eyed beauty! Ole Danny dumb- 
head!” as loud as he could. 

At the end of the alley he turned and 
shouted, 


78 


ELEPHANT BUYS AN AUDIENCE 


“A pants’ leg for an el’funt’s tail! Oh, 
my gorry !” 

When he disappeared from sight, the three 
boys surveyed the elephant’s skin lying on 
the ground. 

“Let ’s not play any more,” said Danny. 

“I ’m tired of the ole circus, anyway,” 
replied Chris. 

They went into the house, Jerry slowly 
following them. Even he could not ’mag- 
inary the old green wrapper and the stuffed 
brown coat sleeve and blue trouser leg into 
an elephant any more. 


79 


CHAPTER VI 


The Children That Cried in the Lane 

The days slipped by and none of the chil- 
dren played circus again. Jerry thought of 
it often and would have liked to be the 
elephant just once, but he never said any- 
thing. That made him dream all the more 
about the real circus which was coming and 
wish that he could see it. He was very care- 
ful not to put his longing into words, so he 
would n’t remind Mother ’Larkey of the ends 
that would n’t meet and make her feel badly. 
One day she came across the old green wrapper 
elephant skin in the woodshed. 

“Why don’t you children play circus any 
more?” she asked Danny. 

“El’funts don’t look like that,” he asserted, 
pointing disdainfully at the discarded cos- 
tume. “Their tails are small like a rope.” 

“Are they now?” she asked. “And how 
might you be after knowing that?” 

80 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIED 


“National history says so,” Danny replied 
in a very decisive tone. 

Mrs. Mullarkey gave one of those low, 
fleeting laughs that always made Jerry feel 
so good inside and which had become so rare 
of late. “Yes, I guess national history would 
be after telling about the elephant’s tail as 
long as it deals with elephants and eagles and 
donkeys and camels and all.” 

Jerry felt there must be something funny 
in what Mother ’Larkey said, because her 
nose went all crinkly, and he smiled in sym- 
pathy anyway, although he did n’t under- 
stand. 

But playing circus no longer appealed to 
the Mullarkey children. Darn Darner had 
had a blighting influence on the power of their 
imaginations, and Danny in the elephant 
costume would have been to them now only 
a little boy in an old green wrapper much too 
large for him, dragging about a stuffed blue 
trouser leg for a tail, — a very ridiculous 
spectacle. Jerry realized that there would 
never be a next time and that he would never 
play the elephant. 

A few days before the circus was to come 
81 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


to town Jerry and the Mullarkey children 
were returning from the woods by the creek, 
where they had gone to see what the prospects 
were for a good yield of hazel and hickory 
nuts in the fall, and had just entered the edge 
of town when they saw Darn Darner approach- 
ing. They had not set eyes on him since the 
day he broke up their circus and they were 
doubtful as to how he would behave towards 
them. 

“Just pretend as though nothing had never 
happened,” Nora suggested. 

“Yes, that’s best,” Danny agreed. “Let 
him speak first.” 

They watched Darn’s nearer approach 
without seeming to do so. They tried to keep 
talking and laughing so he would n’t think 
they were the least little bit afraid of him, 
but Jerry and Celia Jane first fell silent and 
then Chris and Nora, and finally Danny, 
so that when they met Darn they were as 
quiet and subdued as a funeral party. 

“Hello!” said Darn, as they were in the 
act of passing. “Where you kids been?” 

“Hullo, Darn,” replied Danny. “We just 
been out in the woods.” 

82 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIED 


“There ’s goin’ to be lots of hazelnuts in the 
fall,” Nora informed him, in a voice which 
she tried to make genial. 

“And hickory nuts too,” added Jerry, feel- 
ing that such good news would help keep 
Darn in his present state of good humor and 
from thinking about what had happened at 
their circus. 

“That don’t interest me much just now,” 
Darn remarked. “I’m goin’ to the circus. 
We ’re goin’ to have reserved seats, a dollar 
and a half apiece. There ain’t no better 
to be had.” 

“A dollar an’ a half for one seat ! ’’exclaimed 
Celia Jane. “I thought it cost only fifty 
cents to see the circus.” 

“That ’s just to get in and set on an ole 
board without any back to it,” Darn informed 
her. “We ’re goin’ to have reserved seats 
in the boxes, with chairs to sit on.” 

“A fifty-cent seat would suit me all right,” 
observed Danny. 

“An’ me, too,’ echoed Chris and Nora and 
Celia Jane and Jerry. 

“Are you kids goin’ to see the circus un- 
load?” asked Darn. 


83 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Will they let you get close enough to 
see?” questioned Danny in turn. 

“Of course. They can’t keep you from 
lookin’, I guess.” 

“No, I guess not.” Danny answered his 
own question as though it had been asked 
by Chris. “Anybody knows he could look.” 

“Could you see the el’funt?” Jerry asked 
timidly. 

“You could if you had eyes,” replied Darn 
loftily. 

“Where ’re they goin’ to unload?” Danny 
queried. 

“On the sidetrack by Smith’s house, just 
back of the depot, at five o’clock in the 
morning. I ’m goin’ to see them unload.” 

“So ’ml!” cried Danny. 

“An’ me, too ! ” asserted Chris. 

“An’ me, too !” Jerry hurried to make that 
statement so that Danny could not say he 
could n’t go because he had not chosen to go 
when there was a chance. 

“No, you’re not,” Darn asserted with a 
sudden frown. 

“I am, too!” cried Jerry. Then after a 
moment he asked plaintively, “Why ain’t I ?” 

84 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIED 


“I guess you ain’t got nothin’ to say about 
whether Jerry goes or not,” Danny interposed 
quickly. “He can go if he wants to.” 

“No, he can’t,” contradicted Darn. 

“Why can’t he?” Nora asked. 

“They don’t let anybody in the poor farm 
go to the circus,” was Darn’s unexpected 
reply. 

“That ’s not got nothin’ to do with Jerry !” 
cried Danny hotly. “I guess he ain’t in no 
poor farm.” 

“He ’s goin’ to be, though,” pursued Darn 
calmly, in that restrained, superior, infor- 
mative manner which sometimes can be so 
maddening. 

“I ain’t either, am I, Danny?” Jerry ap- 
pealed dolefully. 

“No, you ain’t,” Danny assured him. 
“Darn ’s jest tryin’ to make you cry. Don’t 
you let him scare you.” 

“Jerry Elbow ’s goin’ to the poor farm be- 
fore the circus gets here,” stated Darn. 

“I ain’t!” cried Jerry in a shaky voice. 
“I won’t go ! So there !” 

“They ’ll take you,” Darn informed him, 
“ and you won’t have anything to say about it.” 

85 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“ Mother ’Larkey won’t let them take me, 
will she, Danny?” asked Jerry in a voice that 
was becoming shrill and high from fear. 

“No, she won’t,” asserted Danny. “Darn 
Darner, you jest let Jerry be. You ain’t 
got no right to scare a orfum boy like that.” 

“We won’t let them take you,” comforted 
Celia Jane, suddenly affectionate, and put 
her arm about Jerry’s neck. 

Darn stepped directly in front of Jerry and 
stared coolly down at him until Jerry was so 
uncomfortable that he could n’t raise his 
eyes from the ground. 

“You ’re goin’ to the poor farm Wednesday 
morning,” he said calmly, “because Mrs. 
Mullarkey ’s too poor to keep you any longer. 
She can’t make enough to keep her own kids.” 

Jerry felt suddenly very little and all alone 
in a big cold world. Fear had entered his 
heart. He felt that Mrs. Mullarkey not only 
had n’t been able to make both ends meet 
but that she was never going to be able to 
do it. He some way knew that Darn Darner 
was telling the truth and that soon he would 
be torn away from the only home he could 
remember. His lips twisted and he felt the 
86 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIED 


hot tears filling his eyes. Yet he denied 
Darn’s statement with all his soul. 

“They won’t ! They shan’t take me ! I ’ll 
run away first !” 

“Much good that would do you,” com- 
mented Darn unsympathetically. “It’d be 
easy enough to find you.” 

“ How do you know they ’re goin’ to take 
Jerry away?” asked Chris. 

“He don’t know it!” cried Nora. “He’s 
jest try in’ to scare us.” 

“No, I ain’t,” denied Darn. “My father ’s 
overseer of the poor in this county and I guess 
I heard him tell mamma last night that he 
was goin’ to take Jerry to the poor farm 
Wednesday morning. He said Mrs. Mul- 
larkey had agreed as to how she ’d hafta let 
him take Jerry because her insurance money 
from Mr. Mullarkey was all gone and she 
could n’t make enough to support her own 
kids.” 

“It ain’t so!” blustered Jerry, but all the 
time terribly frightened. He tried to think 
of something to say that would show he was 
not afraid of Darn Darner, who was always 
picking on little boys. 

87 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

“You shan’t go!” Celia Jane cried, tears 
running down her cheeks. She flung both 
arms around Jerry’s neck and squeezed him 
passionately. 

“What will Kathleen do without Jerry?” 
asked Nora in a choked voice. 

Jerry looked up and saw that she was 
quietly weeping, too. They believed it ! Be- 
lieved that Mother ’Larkey would let them 
take him away ! He had been somewhat 
comforted by their stout assertions that Darn’s 
words were false, but now — ! 

He was stunned. Then his lips twisted 
and twitched and the tears that had been 
forming in his eyes spilled silently over. 

“Don’t get scared, Jerry,” Danny tried to 
comfort him. Then he turned to the tor- 
mentor. “Darn you, Darn, why can’t you 
let him be !” 

There it was ! Just what Jerry wanted to 
show Darn he could n’t scare him. His 
oozing courage flamed up in a final flare of 
desperation. Through his"tears”and the choke 
in his throat he cried : 

“Darn Darn Darner! Darn! Darn! 
Darn ! Darn Darn Darner ! ” 

88 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIED 


“That’s about enough from you, Jerry 
Elbow!” shouted Darn. He gave Jerry a 
resounding slap in the face. “No kid like 
you can call me that without takin’ the 
biggest lickin’ he ever got.” 

“No, you don’t !” cried Danny and quick as 
a flash he rushed at Darn and began pound- 
ing him over the head and shoulders with his 
fists. Chris and Nora went to Danny’s aid 
and the three pairs of fists caused Darn to 
duck and run a short distance. 

Jerry slumped down into the dust of the 
road, weeping bitterly, and Celia Jane flopped 
down by him, hugging him tight and mingling 
her tears with his. 

Danny and Chris and even the usually 
gentle Nora, but for once with all her gentle- 
ness vanished, gave vent to their feelings 
against Darn by making a chant out of his 
name. 

“ Darn Darn Darner! Darn! Darn! 
Darn ! Darn Darn Darner ! Darn ! Darn ! 
Darn!” 

Into that chant boiled over all their pent-up 
dislike for him which had been simmering 
under cover for so long. Darn started back 
89 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


towards them, angry through and through, 
but stopped as they rushed to meet him, 
fists doubled up ready for battle. He had 
fought many boys bigger than himself, but 
he fled before the numerical strength of the 
present enemy, flinging back over his shoulder 
from a safe distance, “Blue-eyed beauty! 
Ole Danny dumb-head ! Blue-eyed beauty ! 
Ole Danny dumb-head ! Yah ! You ’ll hafta 
go to the poor farm if you want to see Jerry 
Elbow after Wednesday.” 

Upon hearing Darn’s words Jerry stretched 
out at full length in the road and his voice 
rose in a quavering wail of anguish. Celia 
Jane emitted a thinner, shriller wail. Nora 
came back to comfort them and was caught 
by the contagion so that she too plumped 
down in the road and wept. 

Danny and Chris, being boys, were ashamed 
to give vent to their emotions in a similar 
way and stood looking down at the huddled 
forms in the road. Chris, after a time, found 
himself weeping in sympathy and openly 
rubbed away the tears with his shirt sleeve. 
Even Danny swallowed hard and dabbed at 
his eyes. 


90 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIED 


“Well, I’ll be horn-swoggled ! ” exclaimed 
a startled, mystified voice back of the children. 

Jerry opened his eyes on a blurred picture 
of Danny and Chris turning suddenly about 
and of Nora springing to her feet. A man 
was just getting out of a two-seated buggy. 
All sound of his approach had been drowned 
out by the vociferous lamentations of Jerry 
and Celia Jane, which still continued. 

“What ’s the trouble here?” asked the man 
in a deep, pleasant voice that carried even 
through the clamor into Jerry’s consciousness. 
He raised his head and looked up through 
swollen and tear-drenched eyes at the man. 

“They ’re g-goin’ to take Jerry Elbow to 
the p-p-poor farm Wednesday morning,” 
Danny stutteringly explained. 

“Then you must be the Mullarkey chil- 
dren,” observed the man, speaking to the 
group. 

“I ’m Danny,” said Danny, and Chris 
identified himself. 

“Then this must be Jerry Elbow,” the man 
remarked, stooping to pick Jerry up. 

Jerry flung his arms about the man’s neck 
and clung there desperately. 

91 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Yes, sir, he ’s Jerry,” Nora explained, as 
Celia Jane got up out of the road and brushed 
the dust from her dress. 

“My name ’s Tom Phillips,” said their new 
friend. “I knew your father, Dan Mullarkey, 
very well. He told me once how he found 
you by the roadside one stormy night far 
from any house, Jerry Elbow.” 

Jerry felt comforted in the strong arms of 
Mr. Phillips and at the pleasant, deep quality 
of his voice. He stopped crying except for 
the long, shuddering sobs that always came 
at intervals after he had cried so hard. 

“Who said anything about taking you to 
the poor farm?” he asked Jerry. 

“D-D-Darn,” Jerry sobbed out. 

“Darn!” said Mr. Phillips, puzzled. “ I 
say darn, too, but who was it?” 

“It was Darn Darner,” Danny told him. 

“Oh!” exclaimed Mr. Phillips. “That 
scalawag ! ” 

“He said his father said so,” Nora explained. 

“That will have to be looked into,” Mr. 
Phillips remarked. “Now you children climb 
into the buggy and I will take you home. I 
want to have a talk with your mother.” 

92 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIEI> 


“She ’s not to home,” said Chris. 

“Mebbe she ’ll be back,” observed Nora, 
looking at the sun. “It ’s gettin’ on towards 
supper time.” 

I “We’ll see,” was Mr. Phillips’ only com- 
ment as he placed Jerry on the front seat 
and helped Celia Jane in beside him. 

Danny and Chris and Nora, in the mean- 
time, had climbed into the back seat. Mr. 
Phillips clucked to the horses and they trotted 
off into town. 

Jerry felt greatly comforted to be riding 
home with this big, pleasant man, and the 
cruel edge of Darn’s words began to wear 
off. He felt that this new friend’s words, 
“That will have to be looked into,” meant 
almost as much as though he had said, “I ’ll 
see that nothing of the sort happens.” 

His body was still shaken, at longer and 
longer intervals, by shuddering sobs, but when 
the Mullarkey home was reached, they had 
subsided and he was enjoying the unaccus- 
tomed buggy ride. 

Mrs. Mullarkey was home, and she came 
running out to see why her children were 
being brought back in a buggy 
93 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

“Who ’s hurt / 5 she asked anxiously, “that 
you ’re bringing them home in a buggy ?” 

“None of them is hurt, Mrs. Mullarkey,” 
Mr. Phillips assured her quickly, and helped 
the children out. “I ’m Tom Phillips. I 
knew your husband quite well. I found these 
children crying in the road because Mr. 
Darner’s young scalawag of a son had told 
them that Jerry Elbow was to be taken to the 
poor farm.” 

“Oh, Jerry, you blessed child!” crooned 
Mother ’Larkey, taking Jerry in her arms. 
“And you to find it out from some one else 
when I ’d been trying for this week past to 
get up courage enough to tell you.” 

“Mother!” cried Nora in a shocked voice. 

“It’s true, then?” asked Mr. Phillips. 

“Yes,” replied Mrs. Mullarkey, drawing 
Jerry tightly to her. “I don’t want to let 
you go, Jerry, but Dan’s insurance money is 
all gone and how I am to make enough to 
keep the bodies and souls of all you children 
together I don’t know. I love you as though 
you were my own, you ’re that sweet and 
gentle.” 

Jerry began crying again, but softly this 
94 


THE CHILDREN THAT CRIED 


time, because he knew Mother ’Larkey 
would n’t let him go if she could help it. 
She kissed him and turned to Mr. Phillips. 

“Mr. Darner told me I ’d sooner or later 
have to let some of my own children go there 
or be adopted out, if I did n’t consent to 
Jerry’s going. I ’m at the end of my string.” 

“I see,” observed Mr. Phillips gently. “I 
did n’t know just how Dan Mullarkey left 
you fixed, but I can do something to help 
you. Darner can be made to listen to reason 
and I can bring some influence to bear upon 
him. I don’t see why the county can’t let 
you have as much as it would cost it to keep 
Jerry at the farm. I belong to the same lodge 
as Dan did and we ’ll help you some there. 
I ’ll find something for Danny to do. He can 
be earning a little money in the summer time 
and help you out that way.” 

“You ’re an angel if ever there was one in 
this world, Mr. Phillips,” said Mrs. Mul- 
larkey. “If the county will allow me for 
Jerry’s keep, I ’ll take better care of him than 
he ’d get at any institution and it would help 
me in keeping the brood together.” 

“I ’ll see what I can do,” said Mr. Phillips. 

95 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Then Jerry won’t hafta go?” Celia Jane 
questioned. 

“I hope not,” he replied. “Keep a stiff 
upper lip, Jerry !” 

“I — I’ll try,” Jerry promised, already 
feeling certain that the danger which threat- 
ened him had passed. 

“I ’ll come back in a day or two,” said Mr. 
Phillips, “and let you know what I have been 
able to do.” 

Jerry watched him from over Mother 
’Larkey’s shoulder as he drove off. He 
thought he had never seen a man who looked 
so big and strong and as though he could make 
people do just as he wanted them to. 


96 


CHAPTER VII 


Tickets to Paradise 

On Wednesday Mr. Phillips reported that 
while the matter of allowing Mrs. Mullarkey 
to keep Jerry had not been decided, he would 
not be taken to the poor farm on that day 
at least and he thought it could be arranged 
that he should n’t go there at all. Con- 
sequently it was with a joyous heart that 
Jerry awoke early on the morning of the great 
day that the circus was to reach town. He 
had slept fitfully all night, thinking of the 
circus and fearing that he might not wake 
up in time. Mrs. Mullarkey had promised 
to call him, but for once Jerry had waked up 
himself. 

He heard a stir downstairs and called to 
Mother ’Larkey that he was up. He roused 
Chris, who in turn called Danny, but Danny 
was a sound sleeper and merely turned on his 
side. Chris and Jerry then rolled him over 
and pulled the covers off and finally pum- 
97 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


meled the sleeper into a state of semi- 
consciousness. 

“It’s time for the circus to unload,” they 
told him. 44 We ’re all dressed, ready to go.” 

Danny opened one swollen, sleepy eye. 
44 Aw, it ’s not time yet,” he muttered drowsily 
and went back to sleep. 

44 All right, let him be,” said Chris in disgust. 
44 We ain’t got time to wake him. We ’ll miss 
the unloadin’ if we do.” 

So Jerry and Chris tiptoed carefully down- 
stairs, for they knew Mrs. Mullarkey had 
gone back to bed, and ran through the dim 
light of dawn to the railway station. 

The circus train was in and the unloading 
had already begun. Nearly all the small 
boys in town seemed to be perched on fences, 
roofs, and in trees, watching the proceedings. 
The circus men were tired and cross and 
made the children keep out of the way. 

Jerry was dreadfully excited and exhilarated 
upon seeing four elephants on the opposite 
side of the train, and his delight knew no 
bounds when one of them was hitched to a 
heavy circus wagon on a car and pulled it 
down a board incline to the road. The funny, 
98 


TICKETS TO PARADISE 

awkward animal walked right along as though 
the wagon were as light as a feather. Many 
of the boys complained because the sides of 
the wagons in which the wild animals were 
kept were closed, but not so Jerry. As long 
as he could feast his eyes on the elephants he 
was content. He had but a passing glance 
for the humpbacked camels and the two long- 
necked giraffes until after the elephants had 
been taken away. 

When the train had been unloaded and the 
last wagons were hauled away, the troop of 
small boys — and many older ones and grown 
men as well — followed them out to the circus 
ground. 

Already one big tent and several smaller 
ones had been erected and the elephants and 
the other animals were not to be seen. There 
was a delightfully circusy smell of oils and 
sawdust and hay and animals pervading the 
air. Then through it all came another smell 
that made Jerry and Chris and many of the 
boys and men sniff. It was the smell of bacon 
and eggs frying. The cooks were preparing 
breakfast for the circus troupe. 

“I ’m hungry,” said a man back of Jerry to 
99 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


the two boys with him. “We’d better get 
home. Mother will be waiting breakfast 
for us.” They left the circus grounds re- 
luctantly, the two boys stopping every now 
and then to look back. 

That inviting odor of frying bacon and eggs 
was a clarion call to breakfast to scores of the 
onlookers, and the crowd fairly melted away 
until not more than a dozen boys were left, 
among whom Jerry saw Darn Darner. 

“I ’m awful hungry,” said Chris, after they 
had wandered around half an hour longer. 
“Let ’s go home. I guess we ’ve seen about 
all there is to see.” 

Jerry protested. “Let’s wait a while 
longer an’ mebbe they ’ll bring the el’funts 
out.” 

“Mebbe they will,” said Chris and seemed 
straightway to forget all about his hunger. 
They went about the tents again and once 
caught sight of the elephants and camels in 
the second largest tent, as one of the canvas- 
men came out and held back the flaps. He 
was followed by another man with a thick, 
black beard, who wore something that flashed 
in his shirt front. 


100 


TICKETS TO PARADISE 


“Gee, look at the size of that diamond!” 
exclaimed Darn Darner’s voice back of Jerry. 

The man looked sharply about. Jerry 
thought he seemed very much surprised and 
was afraid he might be angry because he and 
Chris were so close to the tent. He started 
to go away, but upon hearing the man speak 
he stood rooted to the spot. 

“What in the world has become of all the 
small boys?” the black-bearded man had 
asked the other. “There were hundreds 
about a few minutes ago. Don’t they know 
they can get to see the circus if they want to 
carry water for the elephants?” 

“I guess the boys in this town never saw 
a circus before, Mr. Burrows,” replied the 
canvasman. 

“Here, you,” Mr. Burrows called to Darn. 
“Want to earn a ticket to the circus ?” 

“No,” said Darn loftily. “I ’ve got a re- 
served box seat.” He turned and walked off. 

“What did I tell you, Sam?” laughed 
Mr. Burrows. “There ’s money in this jay 
town and we ’re going to get a bunch of it.” 

Jerry stepped hastily forward, a light of 
joy dancing in his eyes, with Chris treading 
101 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


on his heels. “Please, mister,” said Jerry 
eagerly, “we ’ll carry water for the elephants.” 

“We want to see the circus,” added Chris. 

“You ’re too little to carry water,” said 
Sam. “Where ’re all the bigger kids ?” 

“They ’ve gone home to breakfast,” replied 
Chris. “ Please, mister, we can carry water. 
I ’m big enough.” 

“Yes, I guess you ’re big enough,” said the 
man with the diamond in his shirt, “but the 
elephants are awful thirsty and it will take 
you a long time. Sam, you see if you can 
find some other boys to help you.” 

Sam departed instantly. 

“Where ’ll we get the water?” asked Chris. 

“From that house across the road. You ’ll 
have to pump it. Your brother there had 
better go home ; he ’s too little to carry 
water.” 

“No, I ain’t, mister,” said Jerry eagerly. 
“I ’m awful strong for my age.” 

“How old are you?” asked the man. 

“I don’t know,” Jerry confessed. Then, 
fearful of losing this opportunity to see the 
circus, he continued, “I guess I ’in almost 
seven or mebbe eight.” 

102 


TICKETS TO PARADISE 


“You don’t know how old you are!” ex- 
claimed the man. “You look much younger 
than seven or eight.” 

“He’s not my brother,” Chris explained. 
“He ’s a orfum my father found when he was 
alive. My brother ’s at home with mother 
and my sisters. We could n’t wake him up. 
But Jerry’s awful strong.” 

“A orfum, hey? And awful strong?” said 
the man and seemed to be studying over 
something in his mind. “Have you ever 
seen a circus ? ” he asked. 

“No, sir,” they both assured him and 
Chris continued: “Mother did once, just 
after she was married to father. She wished 
she could bring us all to the circus but she 
didn’t have money enough.” 

“H’m,” said the man. “I used to be a 
orfum myself and I know how you feel.” 

“Did you?” asked Jerry, and he smiled up 
at the man, unafraid, with a sort of fellow 
feeling. 

“I sure did,” the man smiled down at 
Jerry. “I got to see my first circus through 
carrying water for the elephants.” 

At this moment Sam returned with four 
103 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


other boys, all older than either Jerry or 
Chris. 

“I never saw boys so shy of a circus before, 
Mr. Burrows,” he said. “They ’ve melted 
away as though the circus were a plague. 
But I guess we can get along with these.” 

“All right, Sam,” replied Mr. Burrows, 
“but I want you to pump the water and let 
the boys do the carrying. These two boys,” 
and he put a hand on Jerry’s head and one on 
Chris’s shoulder, “have never seen a circus. 
They ’ll help carry water and be sure that they 
get a matinee ticket apiece.” 

“All right, sir,” replied Sam. “Come on, 
boys.” 

“Let these two carry a pail between them,” 
continued Mr. Burrows, “I don’t want them 
breaking their backs.” 

Jerry felt an unusual warmth go surging 
through him. He was going to carry water 
for the elephants and get a ticket to the 
circus, after all ! He was gladder than ever 
that he had bought the cough medicine for 
Kathleen with the black half-dollar. He 
looked up at Mr. Burrows, and it was such a 
look as a friendless dog might give to a man 
104 


TICKETS TO PARADISE 

who had just petted it and given it something 
to eat. 

“Thank you, mister, for lettin’ me carry 
water for the el’funts,” said Jerry. 

“That ’s all right/’ replied the man. “Here, 
there’s a dime for peanuts. Have a good 
time. ” 

Jerry was too surprised to take the dime and 
Mr. Burrows pressed it into his hand and went 
back into the tent before Jerry had recovered. 

“The boss must have taken a fancy to 
you!” said Sam to Jerry. “Well, them 
elephants is awful thirsty and we ’ve got to 
get to work. Come on.” 

Jerry, envied of all the boys, put the dime 
in his blouse pocket. He seemed to be tread- 
ing on air instead of the solid earth as he 
followed Sam to another part of the ground 
where the boys were given large pails. 

He felt in his blouse pocket every now and 
then to make sure that he really had a dime 
and also that it had not grown wings and 
flown out of his pocket, or made a hole in it 
and dropped out. It was always there and 
his feeling of exhilaration at his good fortune 
kept up, despite the hard work of carrying 
105 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


that pailful of water from the pump across 
the street to the back of the second biggest 
tent, where he and Chris emptied it into a 
kind of a tub. There were half a dozen of 
the tubs to be filled, and before the third one 
was full Jerry’s arms and back ached, but he 
gritted his teeth and kept on. He would show 
them that he was n’t too little to carry water 
for the elephants. 

Under the ache in his arms and back, his 
exhilaration at the possession of the dime and 
the prospect of a ticket to the circus wilted 
but did not die. When the fourth tub was 
about full he sat down on the pump platform 
while Sam filled their pail with water. 

“El’funts must drink a nawful lot of water,” 
he said. 

“Gettin’ tired, ain’t you?” asked Sam. 

“No, I could carry water all day, I guess. 
It makes my back ache some because I ain’t 
used to it.” 

“You kids have made more trips than the 
other boys,” said Sam, “and I ain’t going to 
fill your pail clear full any more. Don’t try 
to go so fast with it. There ’s plenty of 
time.” 


106 


TICKETS TO PARADISE 


“ We want to carry enough for two tickets,” 
said Jerry quickly. “Chris wants to see the 
circus, too, don’t you, Chris?” 

“You bet,” replied Chris. 

“You ’ll get a ticket apiece, all right, as 
long as I ’m on the job,” said Sam, giving 
them the pail not much more than half full 
of water. 

“That ’s a whole lot easier to carry,” Jerry 
assured Sam, as they started for the tub. 

It seemed to Jerry that he and Chris had 
been carrying water for hours by the time the 
last tub was full. He felt almost starving. 
The sun seemed to be ’way up and he was 
so tired and hot that he was about ready 
to drop ; but he found that when the work 
was done and Sam gave each boy a ticket it 
was n’t very late, after all. 

“It’s just nine o’clock,” said Sam, “and 
you kids ’d better scoot home and get some 
breakfast. Just show your mothers them 
tickets if they scold you for stayin’ so long 
and I guess they ’ll hush right up. The 
matinee starts at 2 : 15, but if you want to see 
the menagerie, you ’d better come about half- 
past one or right after the parade.” 

107 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Those magic pieces of paper, which Jerry and 
Chris held tightly in their hands for fear of 
losing them, made them forget their hunger 
and weariness and they set off for home 
at full speed. They raced breathless into the 
house and found that Mrs. Mullarkey and Nora 
had finished washing the breakfast dishes. 

“Look, mother!” cried Chris, panting for 
breath after almost every word, “we Ve got 
tickets for the circus for helpin’ carry water 
for the ej’funts !” 

“Oh, how nice!” said Mrs. Mullarkey. 
“They will be tickets to paradise to you. 
Now you ’ll get lo see the circus, after all. 
But you must be about starved.” 

“We are, almost,” Jerry admitted. 

“Gee, my arms ache,” Chris remarked. 

“You boys had better rub each other’s 
backs with liniment while I get your break- 
fast,” Mother ’Larkey said, getting a bottle 
down from the cupboard. 

“Did Danny get a ticket, too?” Celia Jane 
asked. 

“No,” said Chris. 

“Why, where is Danny?” inquired his 
mother. 


108 


TICKETS TO PARADISE 


44 I don’t know,” replied Chris. 46 He was 
asleep when we left. We tried to wake him 
but he would n’t get up.” 

“Land’s sakes !” exclaimed Mrs.Mullarkey. 
“He must still be upstairs, fast asleep! I 
heard you calling him and then heard you 
tiptoeing downstairs and out of the house 
and thought he was with you.” She went 
to the foot of the stairs and called and the 
sleepy voice of Danny answered : 

“ All right. Is it time for the circus to 
unload ? ” 

“It unloaded hours ago,” she replied, “and 
Chris and Jerry have got back with each of 
them a ticket to the circus for helping carry 
water for the elephants.” 

“Why didn’t you call me!” wailed 
Danny. 

“ Chris and Jerry called you,” answered 
his mother. 44 1 heard them and heard you 
answer. It’s your own fault for being such a 
sleepyhead.” 

It didn’t take Danny long to dress and 
get downstairs, his hair all tousled and his eyes 
still heavy with sleep. “Let’s see your 
tickets,” he demanded. 

109 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

Chris let him see his, but kept a possessive 
hold of one end. There it was : 


Burrows and Fairchild’s 
MAMMOTH CIRCUS AND 
MENAGERIE 

ADMIT ONE 

Complimentary 

“That ’s a ticket, all right,” Danny re- 
marked. “Was that all you had to do to get 
it — carry water for the el’funts?” 

“Yes,” replied Chris, “but it took hours 
and hours. I ’m sore all over.” 

“So ’m I,” said Jerry. 

“Why did n’t you make me wake up ?” 

“We called you and pounded you and 
turned you over,” Chris replied, “but you 
went back to sleep.” 

“Why did n’t you kick me or pull me out 
of bed?” Danny asked. “Then mebbe 
I ’d ’ve got a ticket, too.” 

“Mebbe you can, anyway,” said Celia 
Jane. “The el’funts ’ll want a drink at 
noon.” 


110 


TICKETS TO PARADISE 


“I ’ll go out and see,” said Danny and was 
hurrying off at once, but Mrs. Mullarkey made 
him wait for breakfast. He bolted the oat- 
meal and bread and raced out of the house. 

“I ’m glad I ’m not a sleepy-head like 
Danny,” said Chris. 

“So ’m I,” echoed Jerry. 


Ill 


CHAPTER VIII 

The Crocodile Tears of Celia Jane 

Jerry could hardly wait until time for the 
parade. He and Chris were both too excited 
to play ; they stayed in the house most of the 
time and questioned Mother ’Larkey about 
what she had seen at the circus the time her 
husband had taken her to one in the city. 
She was busy sewing on a dress for Mrs. 
Johnson which was wanted by Saturday 
night and was at length obliged to send them 
out of doors with orders to stay out until 
dinner was ready. 

They soon exhausted each other’s con- 
versation relative to circuses and their knowl- 
edge and guesses about what they would see, 
and fell silent. And the minutes dragged 
their slow length out towards eleven o’clock. 

They could smell the mush and potatoes 
frying for their early dinner when Danny re- 
turned from the circus ground. They knew 

in 


CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE 

at once that he had n’t succeeded in getting a 
“ ticket to paradise”, as Mother ’Larkey had 
called their circus passes, nevertheless Chris 
asked : 

“Did you get a ticket?” 

“No,” replied Danny, sitting down de- 
jectedly. After a while they knew he did n’t 
intend to say any more. Jerry waited as 
long as he could and then asked in turn : 

“Didn’t the el’funts want any water for 
dinner ?” 

“No,” stated Danny glumly. 

That little word “No” seemed to be all 
that Danny cared to say about his experience, 
and the following silence lasted fully ten 
minutes. Danny was the first to break it. 
He did so after apparently awakening to the 
fact that dinner was preparing. He sniffed 
the penetrating odor of frying potatoes and 
mush that had got a little burned, and sat up. 

“ Gee, but I ’m hungry,” he said and 
sniffed again. 

“Wasn’t there anything you could do for 
a ticket ?” Chris asked. 

“No. The man said the early bird got the 
worm at the circus as well as in the garden.” 

113 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


After a time Jerry woke to the fact that 
Danny was looking at him out of the corners 
of his eyes in a peculiar, questioning manner 
that made him feel uneasy. He turned his 
glance away. 

“I ’ll give you both my tops an’ the shiny 
horseshoe nail an’ baseball for your circus 
ticket,” Danny proposed. 

Jerry’s hand flew protectingly to the pocket 
of his blouse. “No!” he cried loudly. “I 
won’t ! I earned it myself !” 

“Well, I ain’t tryin’ to take it away from 
you, am I?” Danny asked, aggrieved. “I 
jest offered you some of my things for it. 
There ain’t no law against offerin’ to trade, I 
guess. I ’ll teach you to skate and let you 
use the skates I got at Christmas if you will. 
An’ I ’ll feed your white rabbit for you.” 

“No,” said Jerry, edging away from him, 
ready to run to the house if Danny should 
try to grab the ticket. “I earned the ticket 
and I ’m a-goin’ to see the circus.” 

“Dinner’s ready, children,” called Mrs. 
Mullarkey. “You ’ll have to hurry to get a 
good place to see the parade.” 

Jerry was ready to start without having 
114 


CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE 


anything to eat. He was too excited to be 
hungry, but Mother ’Larkey made him eat 
so he “would n’t get too faint to enjoy the 
circus.” It was a race between the boys to 
see who would finish first. Chris won. 
Danny, who confessed to being hungry, ate 
twice as much as Jerry and Chris. 

“Now you children keep together at the 
parade,” admonished Mrs. Mullarkey, as they 
were ready to start. “You can follow the 
parade out to the circus grounds for the free 
show outside, but Danny, you keep with Nora 
and Celia Jane and see that they get home 
all right.” 

Jerry did n’t see how the circus could be 
much more fascinating than the parade with 
all its cages open so you could see the animals. 
And with the clowns, too, especially the one 
with the donkey, going through such laughable 
antics. But he was a little disappointed that 
the elephants did n’t jump a fence or do any- 
thing like that during the parade. However, 
the beautiful ladies in gorgeous raiment who 
rode in the little houses strapped to the 
elephants’ backs made him forget about their 
fence-jumping proclivities. 

115 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


When the parade was over, Jerry and the 
Mullarkey children, together with a hundred 
or more small boys and girls, followed the 
steam-throated calliope through the principal 
street of the town out to the tents, fascinated 
by the loudness of the music and the escape 
of jets of steam as the player fingered the 
keys. It seemed to Jerry that there could n’t 
in all the wide world be such heavenly music. 
Celia Jane and Chris shared his enthusiasm, 
but Nora confessed to liking a fiddle better 
and Danny asserted that the music of the 
trombone was easier on the ears. 

The free exhibition on the little platform 
outside the side-show tent had all the fascina- 
tion of the unknown for Jerry and Chris and 
Celia Jane and Nora, but not for Danny, 
who had been to the vaudeville theater twice 
and who knew that this outside sample never 
could come up to the glories to be revealed 
inside for fifty cents, or a dollar and a half 
for reserved seats in the boxes, and was 
critical. 

The dancing girl in short skirts and the man 
with the beard which fell to his feet and the 
very red-faced snake charmer merely whetted 
116 


CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE 


his appetite for what was to come, while to 
Jerry and the rest of the Mullarkey children 
it was a substantial part of the feast itself. 

The free show seemed to Jerry not to have 
much more than started when the raucous 
voice of the ballyhoo announced : 

“This, ladies and gents, concludes the free 
show. The main show will not begin for half 
an hour, thirty minutes — just time enough 
to see the side show, the world’s greatest con- 
gress of freaks and monstrosities. See the 
sword-swallower from India to whom a steel 
sword is no more than a string of spaghetti 
to an Italian. Kelilah, the famous dancer 
of the Nile, whose graceful contortions have 
delighted the eyes and moved the hearts of 
kings. See Major Wee-Wee, the smallest 
man in the world, no bigger than a two-year- 
old baby, and Tom Morgan, the giant who 
stands seven feet three inches in his stocking 
feet. They are all there — every kind of 
human freak from the living skeleton to the 
fat woman who weighs four hundred pounds. 
The price is the same to one and all — twenty- 
five cents, only a quarter of a dollar. This 
way and get your tickets for the side show, 
117 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


There is just time to take in all its wonders 
before the big show in the main tent begins.” 

The promise of all these delights proved 
irresistible to Jerry and Chris and they left 
the children and were almost first in line, 
but the ticket taker refused them admittance. 

“Those tickets are not good to the side 
show,” he said. “They admit you to the 
main tent.” 

Stunned at this disaster, Jerry and Chris 
slunk under the ropes at the entrance and 
rejoined Danny and Nora and Celia Jane. 
They stood in silence as the crowd surged 
around the ticket seller for the side show and 
watched the people stream through the door. 
Never had the lack of “twenty-five cents, 
only a quarter of a dollar”, meant so much 
to any small boy as it meant to Jerry and 
Chris. Some of the people were already 
going into the main tent, passing up the 
glories of the side show. Jerry wondered if 
they, too, did n’t have the necessary quarter 
of a dollar. 

“It would be just grand to see all them 
freaks,” sighed Celia Jane. “If I could only 
see just half the circus.” 

118 


CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE 

Jerry, his ticket still in his hand, looked up 
and saw Danny glancing covetously at it. 

“ What ’ll you take for your ticket ?” he 
asked eagerly. “I ’ll give you anything of 
mine you want.” 

“I won’t trade,” replied Jerry, stuffing the 
ticket into his blouse pocket. “I’m a-goin’ 
to see the circus.” 

Danny made the same proposition to Chris 
but Chris also refused. There was nothing 
of Danny’s that could compensate Jerry or 
Chris for missing the circus, especially when 
they were right there on the ground with their 
tickets in their hands. 

After the crowd had disappeared — part 
into the side show, part into the main tent, 
some to their homes and some to wander about 
the grounds — Jerry and Chris were debating 
whether they should go into the big tent at 
once or wait until time for the main per- 
formance, when they observed Danny, who 
had edged away from them, talking in a low 
voice to Celia Jane. From the motion of 
Celia Jane’s head and the entreating position 
of Danny’s hands, they knew she was refusing 
some request of his. 


119 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


If they had not just then become absorbed 
in watching some circus employee leading 
two big, fat, white horses out of a tent they 
would have seen Celia Jane’s negative shakes 
of the head become weaker as Danny’s 
attitude became more and more commanding, 
and all that occurred afterward might never 
have happened. But they did n’t look around. 

When the horses had disappeared, Jerry 
spoke : 

“They might start early,” he said. “Let ’s 
go in now, Chris.” 

“All right, let ’s,” Chris replied. 

They turned to tell the other Mullarkey 
children good-by and saw that Celia Jane 
was crying. Her shoulders shook and she 
seemed to be in the utmost despair. 

“What’s the matter with Celia Jane?” 
Chris asked. 

“I don’t know,” said Nora. “What ails 
her, Danny?” 

“I don’t know,” Danny asserted quickly. 
“What ’re you cryin’ for, Celia Jane?” 

“I want to see the circus,” sobbed Celia 
Jane. She raised her face and there were 
tears running down it. 

120 


CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE 

“You ain’t got no ticket, have you ?” asked 
Danny. “Nor fifty cents?” 

“N-n-no,” sobbed Celia Jane. 

“Then there ain’t no chance at all of your 
gettin’ in, is there?” 

“I ain’t never seen no circus,” moaned 
Celia Jane. 

“Come on, Jerry,” said Chris; “let’s go 
in now, so ’s we won’t miss anything if they 
start early.” 

At that Celia Jane started crying harder 
than ever and Jerry stood still, a curious 
something making his heart beat faster and 
his throat growing all choky. 

“Let’s go home, Celia Jane,” proposed 
Nora, in a soothing tone. “Mebbe next time 
we can go. They might let us carry water 
for the elephants and earn a ticket to the cir- 
cus, even if we are girls.” 

“I want to see it now,” sobbed Celia Jane. 

Jerry began to feel sort of shuddery inside 
and his mouth puckered up the way it did 
when he felt like crying. 

He was awfully sorry that Celia Jane 
did n’t have a ticket too. He knew he would 
be crying out of sympathy if Celia Jane kept 

m 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


on that way, and started towards Chris, who 
had gone halfway towards the entrance to the 
tent and then had stopped to wait for him. 
Ilis joy at the thought of what he was going 
to witness was clouded through the fact that 
Celia Jane could not see and enjoy it too. 
He walked very slowly towards Chris and 
looked back at Celia Jane. 

“Oh, J-J-Jerry!” cried the weeping girl, 
“I-I-I want to see the circus too.” 

At that appeal Jerry felt as though his 
heart had stopped beating and was sinking 
down into his bare feet. He winked hard to 
keep the tears from coming. He just could n’t 
bear to see Celia Jane so heartbroken about 
not being able to see the circus. 

“You can have my t-t- ticket,” he said 
slowly and pulled the treasured bit of blue 
cardboard out of his pocket. There were 
tears in his eyes but he walked slowly to Celia 
Jane, holding out the ticket to her. 

“Oh, Jerry !” cried Celia Jane. “Will you 
really give it to me of your own free will ?” 

Jerry could n’t speak at first. He nodded 
his head, but Celia Jane just took one end 
of the ticket between her fingers. 

122 


CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE 


“Do you give it to me, Jerry?” she asked, 
in a voice in which there was no trace of 
weeping. Yet the tears stood on her face. 

“Yes,” said Jerry at last and let go of 
the ticket. “ You can have it, Celia 
Jane.” 

“Then I give it to Danny,” said Celia Jane 
and straightway handed the ticket to Danny, 
who snatched it and ran to the entrance of 
the main tent. 

Jerry was so surprised at the treachery of 
Celia Jane after her recent evidences of 
affection and at the suddenness of it all that 
he could not even cry out, — could do nothing 
but stare after Danny. He saw the precious 
bit of pasteboard taken from Danny’s out- 
stretched hand by the ticket- taker and 
dropped into a box and then saw Chris give 
up his ticket and go in. 

“Celia Jane!” he heard Nora cry, “I’m 
going to tell mother what you did to Jerry. 
You ’ll catch it.” 

“Danny!” Jerry at last found his voice, 
and it rose in a forlorn wail. “The ticket is 
mine! Danny!” 

Jerry had forgotten how easily Celia Jane 
123 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


could make the tears come whenever she 
liked, no matter if she did n’t really want 
to cry. He would show that Celia Jane that 
she had gone too far this time. He did n’t 
know what he would do, but turned to go to 
her. As he did so, a crowd of persons going 
to the circus passed between them and when 
they had passed he saw Celia Jane running for 
home with Nora following at a slower pace. 

“Why, what’s the matter, little boy? 
Why are you crying?” he heard a man 
ask. 

Jerry felt the hot tears of bitter disappoint- 
ment coming and he did not want all those 
persons to see him crying. So he turned and 
ran blindly around the big tent ; when he was 
alone he flung himself down on the ground and 
sobbed out his grief, with face pressed into 
the grass. 

Never, never, never would he forgive Celia 
Jane for her perfidy, — nor Danny either for 
taking the ticket, when he knew that it had 
been given to Celia Jane because Jerry 
thought she was really crying because she 
wanted to see the circus. He would really 
run away this time. He would run away 
124 


CROCODILE TEARS OF CELIA JANE 

without going back to tell Mother ’Larkey 
and Kathleen and Nora good-by. 

Now he would not get to see the elephants 
jumping the fence, nor the trapeze performers, 
nor the dancing pony. Even the trained 
seals took on a halo of enchantment now that 
the magic ticket that was to open all those 
joys to him was irrevocably gone. 

His sobbing rose in a renewed outburst, 
but even as he sobbed he felt something shake 
his foot very slightly. He stopped sobbing 
so hard. There was no further shaking of his 
foot and he again gave himself up to the 
bitterness of his grief. 

Then there came a tug at his foot ; it was 
shaken harder than before and then pulled. 
Very much startled, Jerry sat up and found 
himself staring into a pair of twinkling yet 
sympathetic eyes and a face which was just 
as white as chalk, with very, very red lips. 
It was a man, and he wore a white skullcap 
over his head and a white, loose sort of gown 
with blue dots all over it. 

It was Whiteface, the clown, sitting on his 
heels right there in front of him ! That very 
surprising individual suddenly turned a hand- 
125 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


spring, and without standing up, kicked his 
heels together straight up into the air and 
then sat down in front of Jerry, leaned his 
head on his elbow and smiled with twinkling 
eyes, without uttering a word. 


126 


CHAPTER IX 


Clown of Clowns 

Jerry was so surprised that he almost 
forgot that he had been cheated out of his 
ticket to the circus, and he stopped crying 
except for a long shuddering sob every now 
and then, though the tears stood on his 
cheeks. 

The clown looked at him long and steadily ; 
finally he made a little squeaky noise with his 
mouth, and then opened his lips as though 
laughing, but did not utter a sound. His 
mouth seemed to keep broadening in a hearty 
laugh until Jerry thought it would really 
touch his ears. It was such a good-natured 
grin and his eyes twinkled so that Jerry 
smiled ever so little. 

At that little smile the clown’s silent laugh 
suddenly disappeared and with that funny 
little squeak in his mouth, which Jerry knew 
meant joy in spite of its being nothing but 
a squeak, he jumped suddenly to his feet and 
127 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


turned a series of handsprings around in a 
circle, kicking his heels in the air and ending 
up just where he started, directly in front 
of Jerry, squatting down on the ground, with 
elbow on knee, chin in hand, looking intently 
into Jerry’s eyes. 

The clown’s lips were very sober in spite of 
the general laughableness of his face, but as he 
kept looking at Jerry a smile started right at 
the corners of his mouth and then disappeared. 
That smile seemed to be waiting for en- 
couragement, for after a time it started up 
again and followed the clown’s lips almost 
to the center of his mouth. It did n’t get 
quite that far, however, but raced quickly 
back to the corners of his mouth, as though 
in disappointment, and disappeared. 

Then a remarkable change came over the 
clown’s face. The corners of his mouth began 
to* droop and his eyes to close. Jerry thought 
he was going to cry. His shoulders hunched 
forward until the clown was the most forlorn 
looking object Jerry had almost ever seen. 
The corners of his mouth kept going down and 
down until they nearly touched his chin. 

Jerry kept fascinated eyes on that chalky 

128 


CLOWN OF CLOWNS 


white face with the very, very red lips. It 
was the drollest expression of grief he had 
ever seen, and a smile began to play about his 
own lips. 

That tentative smile on Jerry’s part brought 
another sudden and remarkable change over 
the clown’s countenance. He began that 
silent laugh again and it grew and it grew 
until the face was all a huge grin. Jerry 
found himself grinning out of pure, con- 
tagious sympathy. 

Then the clown laughed harder than ever, 
still without making a sound, and held his 
sides as though he had laughed so hard that 
they ached. He emitted one short, little 
staccato laugh and stopped suddenly, as 
if he were waiting to see if Jerry liked the 
sound before continuing with it. 

Jerry did like it and laughed out loud himself. 

The clown’s face was all changed at that 
laugh of Jerry’s and became so comically 
still and sorrowful that Jerry laughed harder. 
Then the clown started laughing out loud, 
holding his sides until it became a laughing 
duet between them. 

Jerry was happy again. He had forgotten 
129 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


all about Danny’s perfidy and the tears of 
Celia Jane and the stolen “ticket to paradise.” 

The clown’s features suddenly fell calm 
and he jumped to his feet and pirouetted on 
his heels with little graceful leaps in the air, 
as though he were light as a feather and 
going to take flight. Jerry was sure that 
that was the clown’s way of rejoicing at 
having made him laugh. 

Then the clown was suddenly sitting in 
front of Jerry again. “So you ’ve found the 
secret,” he remarked in a very human and 
pleasant voice. 

“What secret?” asked Jerry. 

The clown whispered in his ear, “The secret 
of laughter.” 

“The secret of laughter?” repeated Jerry 
wonderingly. 

“Shush!” warned Whiteface, looking cau- 
tiously about. “Don’t let anybody know 
you ’ve found it till it ’s had time to get used 
to you. It might like somebody else better 
and leave you for that somebody else, though 
I don’t see how the secret of laughter cotild 
like anybody better than you. You ’re such 
a brave little boy.” 


130 


CLOWN OF CLOWNS 


“What will the secret of laughter do?” 
Jerry asked in a low tone. 

“It will make you happy,” replied White- 
face. “Nothing is as bad as you think it is 
if only you can keep the secret of laughter 
at your side. It will make you forget your 
sorrow and laugh and laugh till the sorrow 
slinks away.” 

“Never to come back?” asked Jerry. 

The clown’s mouth drooped again and his 
shoulders sunk forward. 

“That ’s the tragedy of it,” he said. “Sor- 
row takes such a firm hold on us some- 
times, especially when one is grown up, 
that it comes 'back even after the secret 
of laughter has driven it away. But it 
is different with children; with them the 
secret of laughter almost always drives sor- 
row away for good and all and leaves them 
happy.” 

“How can it make them happy?” asked 
Jerry. 

“By making them forget.” 

“Forget what?” pursued Jerry, puzzled. 

“What made them cry,” responded the 
clown, “as you have.” 

131 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Then his face clouded and his white, chalky 
brows frowned. 

“You have forgotten, haven’t you?” he 
asked eagerly. 

“Y-y-yes,” replied Jerry, “almost.” 

“Almost !” exclaimed Whiteface, very much 
disappointed. “Then it has come back if 
you have n’t forgotten it altogether. I won- 
der what it can be if the secret of laughter 
can’t drive it away?” 

He looked up so questioningly that Jerry 
responded at once. “It ’s Celia Jane.” 

It was the clown’s turn to be surprised. 

“Celia Jane !” he exclaimed. “Cupid starts 
in so young nowadays!” 

“It was not Cupid,” said Jerry, who had 
no more idea than the man in the moon who 
or what Cupid might be. 

“No?” said the clown. “That’s good! 
What did Celia Jane do?” 

“She cried.” 

“Was that what you were crying for — 
because Celia Jane cried ? ” 

“No,” Jerry answered. “I gave her my 
ticket to the circus which I got for carryin’ 
water fbr the el’funts.” 

132 


CLOWN OF CLOWNS 


“Ah!” said the clown. “She cried to get 
your ticket so she could see the circus herself. 
I see.” 

“No! She gave my ticket to Danny,” 
pursued Jerry, and his grief was coming back 
so rapidly that he felt his lips begin twisting 
again. 

“And Danny went to the circus in your 
place?” questioned the clown. “And the 
crocodile tears of Celia Jane made you shed 
so many real ones!” 

“Celia Jane always does what Danny 
wants her to,” continued Jerry. 

“It was very naughty of her!” said the 
clown. “And Danny should be spoken to.” 

“Will yoti speak to him?” asked Jerry. 
“Then mebbe he ’ll give me my ticket back.” 

“I don’t know Danny,” replied the clown, 
“but I’ll probably think up a way to get 
you into the circus even if you don’t have a 
ticket.” 

“Oh, can you?” cried Jerry excitedly. 
He got to his feet and in his eagerness put an 
arm over Whiteface’s shoulder. 

“I’m sure I can if I think very hard,” re- 
turned the clown. 


133 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“You will think very hard, won’t you? 
Please.” 

“Oh, a wf ully hard, ’ ’'replied Whi tef ace . “But 
don’t you worry. The secret of laughter made 
your grief slink away for good. But I must 
know your name. It will help me to think.” 

“Jerry Elbow,” replied Jerry promptly. 

“Well, Jerry Elbow,” said the clown, “now 
I ’ll think. You may watch me think, but 
don’t say anything, as I might get to thinking 
your thoughts, and if our thoughts get crossed 
there ’s no telling what would happen.” 

“I won’t,” Jerry promised. 

The clown put his chin in his hand, palm 
out so that his thumb and forefinger half 
encircled his face, and began slowly rolling 
his head from side to side. Then with the 
forefinger of his other hand he tapped the top 
of his head slowly several times. 

“Think!” he commanded his own head. 
“Here ’s a very small boy that you can make 
very happy. Think of a way to do it. 
Think!” 

Jerry sat down again and watched him 
eagerly, holding on to himself to keep from 
speaking and getting their thoughts mixed up. 

134 


CLOWN OF CLOWNS 


Every emotion pictured on the clown’s 
mobile face was reflected on Jerry’s. When 
the clown brightened as though he felt the 
thought coming that would provide a means 
for getting Jerry into the circus, Jerry’s face 
likewise brightened. But when Whiteface 
slumped down into the most discouraged 
attitude in the world, Jerry knew that that 
idea would n’t do and the corners of his own 
mouth drooped and, unconsciously, he rested 
his chin in the palm of his hand just as the 
clown did and despair made him huddle 
down in a heap. 

All of a sudden the clown made a clicking 
noise with his tongue and his figure began to 
straighten up and his face to lighten until 
it was all smiles. Jerry bounded to his feet. 
He forgot all about Whiteface’s caution not 
to speak and cried : 

“Have you got it? Did the thought 

? >> 

“Yes!” cried the clown. “I’ll buy you 
a ticket !” 

“Will you?” exclaimed Jerry. 66 Will 

D >> 

you i 

“Yes, here’s the money,” and Whiteface 
135 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


reached for his pocket. His hand kept sliding 
down his loose, blue-spotted, white costume, 
but did not enter into any pocket. 

“ Can’t you find your pocket?” asked 
Jerry fearfully. 

“I had one this morning,” replied the 
clown solemnly, “and there was money in it 
— enough to buy you a ticket to the circus 
and more, but now I don’t seem to be able to 
find it. You don’t see a pocket on me, do 
you, Jerry Elbow?” 

Jerry went close and walked all about the 
clown. There was not a sign of a pocket and 
he began to feel dreadfully disappointed. 

“There ain’t no pocket,” he said sorrow- 
fully. 

“Then there must be some pocket. If 
there ain’t no pocket, there must be a pocket 
somewhere. If you had said there is no 
pocket it would be so. Look again.” 

Jerry looked carefully, more and more 
sorrowfully. 

“There is no pocket,” he said at last in a 
voice that was trembly, all ready to cry. 

“That ’s funny,” said the clown. “I know 
there was one this morning because I used 
136 


CLOWN OF CLOWNS 


some of the money that was in it.” He sank 
into thought for a moment and then looked 
suddenly at Jerry. 

“I know why we can’t find a pocket!” 
cried he. “While I was thinking very hard 
of a way to get you into the circus and almost 
had the thought, you said, "Have you got 
it? Did the thought come?’ Now, didn’t 
you?” 

The appalling truth burst upon Jerry. He 
had spoiled Whiteface’s thought by inter- 
rupting and their thoughts had got mixed. 

“I did n’t know I was going to,” he said. 
“I tried so hard not to.” 

“And did n’t you think that it would take 
only fifty cents to buy a ticket?” asked the 
clown. 

“Yes,” Jerry miserably admitted. 

“That’s it!” exclaimed the clown. 
“That ’s what mixed my thoughts all up with 
yours. I was trying to think of a way to get 
you in without any money. Then, when our 
thoughts got mixed, I began thinking of the 
ordinary way of getting into a circus by 
buying a ticket.” 

“Can’t you think again?” Jerry pleaded 
137 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


in a very contrite voice. “I will keep still 
this time. I will ! ” 

Just as he spoke a band inside the tent 
started playing. It was so near him that he 
was startled, and jumped. 

“The circus is about to begin,” said the 
clown. “The band is playing for the parade. 
I must think quickly so you won’t miss any 
of it.” 

There was no need of warning Jerry not to 
say anything this time. He would have said 
nothing if he had seen the clown turn into an 
elephant. It was an awful hard thought to 
think, for the clown stretched out on the 
ground right close to the tent and looked 
under the canvas. Then he rolled over, sat 
up and wagged his head solemnly at 
Jerry. 

“I ’ve got it !” he cried and bounded to his 
feet and jumped clear over Jerry’s head. 

“I did n’t say nothing this time!” boasted 
Jerry. “I did n’t say nothing this time!” 

“No,” said the clown, “you didn’t and 
our thoughts did n’t all get mixed up.” 

“Will I get in before it starts?” asked 
Jerry. 


138 


CLOWN OF CLOWNS 


“ Yes, or my name ’s not Jack Robinson,” 
said the clown. 

“Is that your name?” asked Jerry. 

“Only to-day/’ replied the clown. “To- 
morrow it may be Tom, Dick or Harry.” 

“Robinson?” questioned Jerry. 

“Or Smith or Kettlewell,” replied the clown, 
smiling. “Now you must do just what I 
tell you to and do it quickly.” 

“I will,” promised Jerry. 

“Shut your eyes. Are they shut?” 

“Yes,” said Jerry, closing them so tight 
that he saw funny little green and red and 
purple streaks of light. 

“Keep them shut. Don’t open them once 
till I tap you on the back twice. Then you 
count to twenty, and if I don’t tap you on the 
back again, open your eyes and you will be 
in the circus. Then you walk right ahead 
till you come to the first row of seats where 
there will be a lot of children and you just 
pick out any empty seat you see and sit there. 
Do you understand?” 

“Yes,” replied Jerry. 

“Eyes shut,” commanded the clown. 
“Come with me.” 


139 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


He led Jerry quite a distance away from 
the tent, Jerry thought, and then had him 
sit down on the ground so that the clown 
was directly behind him. 

“Now, 55 said Whiteface, “you are going to 
be carried into the circus, but don’t open 
your eyes till I tap twice on your back and 
you have counted to twenty.” 

“I won’t,” promised Jerry. 

“If you see me in the circus,” said the 
clown, “you can speak to me if you want to. 
No, don’t open your eyes.” 

For Jerry, in his eagerness to assure 
Whiteface that he would speak to him 
if he saw him in the circus, was about 
to look up at him. For fear that he yet 
might do so, he shut his eyes tighter, till 
they hurt, and covered them with both 
hands. 

“Lean over,” whispered the clown, “ close 
to the ground.” 

As he did so, Jerry felt his forehead brush 
something that felt exactly like the canvas 
of a tent. 

“Now,” said the clown, “good-by till you 
speak to me in the circus.” 

140 


CLOWN OF CLOWNS 


“Good-by,” whispered Jerry in a daze of 
delight and mystery. 

He heard a swishing sound and then felt 
the clown push him along on the ground. 
A moment later he felt two thumps on his 
back and he started in to count. He reached 
twenty without feeling another thump and 
opened his eyes. 

He was in the circus tent ! 


141 


CHAPTER X 


“Great Sult Anna O'Queen 

Jerry knew that he was in the circus tent 
although he had not expected it to be anything 
like that. A band was playing and hundreds 
and hundreds of persons, mostly children, 
were sitting on boards, each one raised a little 
higher than the others, and whistling and 
clapping their hands. And clear around the 
tent were other sections of seats, all filled 
with men and women and children. Eyes 
wide open with wonder at the smell and the 
bigness of the tent and the paraphertialia 
used by the performers, Jerry rose to his 
feet. He looked back of him, but only the 
canvas side of the tent met his gaze. White- 
face, the clown, had entirely disappeared ! 

The lively air the band was playing seemed 
to get right inside of Jerry, for his heart began 
to pound fast and his eyes were dancing. 

He was going to see the circus ! The clown 
had got him in without a ticket! He saw 
142 


“ GREAT SULT ANNA O’QUEEN ” 

many boys and girls and older persons, too, 
hurrying to find places on the board seats 
and he joined the throng. He remembered 
that Whiteface had told him to take any 
seat there he could find and he sat down in 
one in the second row between a boy a good 
deal older than himself and a man with a 
black mustache. 

He had hardly got seated when, from the 
farther side of the tent, there entered a 
gorgeous carriage drawn by a pair of milk- 
white horses. When the carriage got around 
in front of him, Jerry saw that it contained 
Mr. Burrows, the man who had let him carry 
water for the elephants even if he was too 
young, but he did n’t pay much attention to 
him, for there was such a variety of different 
things to absorb his attention, — beautiful 
women in richly colored garments on horses 
and on sober, humpbacked camels, and even 
in little houses on the elephants, just as he 
had seen them in the street parade. 

There was the sword-swallower and the fat 
lady, the giant and the dwarf, and so many 
other things that Jerry could n’t remember 
them all. When the last of them had passed 
143 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


out at the other side of the tent, he became 
aware of a smell that was most enticing, 
quite different from the smell of the circus, — 
the sawdust and the animals and the crowd. 
He had just identified it as the smell of 
freshly roasted peanuts when a boy in a white 
coat in the aisle asked if anybody there 
wanted freshly roasted peanuts for five cents, 
only a half a dime. 

Jerry did, and after watching other small 
boys buying bags of the delicacy, he fished 
out the dime from his blouse pocket and gave 
it to the boy, who handed him back a bag 
of peanuts and a nickel. 

Jerry had just cracked his first peanut 
shell and was munching the two nuts in it 
when he suddenly became aware that the 
circus was going on. In fact, there was so 
much going on that he could not see it all. 
He watched the trapeze performers for a 
minute, swinging and turning somersaults 
and throwing each other about in the air, 
and then his eyes wandered to the acrobats 
going through the most surprising contortions 
on a platform. He had n’t seen half enough 
of that when his attention was captured by 
144 


" GREAT SULT ANNA O’QUEEN ” 


the form of a woman sliding down a wire 
that went clear to the top of the tent and she 
was not holding on to the wire at all ! She 
was hanging from it by her teeth ! He 
expected to see her dash into the crowd of 
people when she reached the end of the wire, 
but two men stopped her. 

Fast and furiously the circus stunts were 
performed. Men in shaggy trousers on horses 
threw ropes about each other and picked up 
handkerchiefs from the ground while their 
horses were running lickety-split. They just 
leaned over in the saddle until Jerry thought 
they were falling off, and picked up the 
handkerchiefs. 

And there was a tight-rope walker. It was 
a woman with no skirts on at all, and the rope 
was way up much higher than a man’s head 
and she did n’t touch the ground with her 
balancing pole at all. Nora could never 
walk the rope like that. And the dancing 
ponies and the trained seals and the dog that 
wound in and out among the spokes of a buggy 
wheel and all the other acts thrilled Jerry 
and made him almost dizzy, they came so 
fast ; but best of all he liked the clowns with 
145 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


their funny faces and droll antics. He did 
not pick out Whiteface the first time the 
clowns came out, there were so many of them 
and they looked so much alike with their white 
faces and red mouths. 

But just after the dancing horses had left 
the tent and the clowns swarmed in again, 
Jerry saw one of them stop and look up at 
the boys above him. He had a bulldog 
under his arm. 

Jerry, unmindful of those about him, stood 
up and shouted : 

“ Whiteface ! Here I am !” 

The clown turned to him, made that funny 
clicking noise in his mouth and bowed. 

“Jerry Elbow,” said the clown and clapped 
his hands. 

“It ’s Jerry!” exclaimed Danny’s startled 
voice somewhere among the hundreds of 
boys and grown-ups back of Jerry. Then 
Danny added in an awed voice, “The clown 
spoke to him ! ” 

Jerry suddenly sat down, for all eyes were 
directed towards him. He did n’t look around 
for Danny and Chris, for he was too con- 
fused to face all those pairs of eyes. 

146 


“GREAT SULT ANNA O’QUEEN” 


Four or five of the other clowns gathered 
about Whiteface, looked up at Jerry and 
clapped their hands, too. Jerry shut his 
eyes for a moment, and when he opened them 
Whiteface and the other clowns were all 
doing something there right in front of him. 

Whiteface was placing his bulldog down 
on the ground and Jerry kept fascinated 
eyes on him. He never could tell afterwards 
what the other clowns did then except that 
as they left to go to another part of the circus, 
one of them, who wore the biggest and longest 
and flattest shoes Jerry had ever seen, stepped 
on his own foot and could n’t get off ! An- 
other clown had to help him off his own foot ! 

But everything that Whiteface did Jerry 
saw and remembered, for he knew that 
Whiteface was playing just for him alone. 
The bulldog stood perfectly still until White- 
face held out a stick ; then the clown jerked 
upon the strap which he held in his right 
hand, one end of which was fastened to the 
dog’s collar, and the dog jumped right over 
the stick ! 

Next time Whiteface raised the stick much 
higher, but when he signaled to the dog by 
147 

i 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

jerking on his collar that it was time for him 
to jump, the dog jumped over the stick again. 

Jerry heard the crowd laughing and ap- 
plauding. He thought no one could help 
laughing at the ludicrous expression on the 
clown’s face as he looked up at the spectators 
every time the dog jumped the stick. Jerry 
did not awake to the fact that the bulldog 
was a stuffed toy one, and not a real dog, 
until the clown took it by the tail and struck 
another clown on the back with it. 

The gasp of astonishment that came from 
many small throats told Jerry that others 
had thought it a real dog, too. He joined 
in the laughter at the easy manner in which 
the clown had fooled them. The look that 
Whiteface turned on Jerry sent a warm glow 
surging over his body. He liked Whiteface 
and was happy in the knowledge that White- 
face liked him. 

He watched the clown fasten the life-size 
toy bulldog to the back of his costume. How 
he did it, Jerry could not tell, but the mock 
terror depicted on Whiteface’s features when 
he found the bulldog with what seemed to be 
a death-grip on the seat of his clothes caused 
148 


“GREAT SULT ANNA O’QUEEN ” 


Jerry and the rest of the children to shriek 
with laughter. With that look of mock 
terror on his face, the clown started to run 
to get away from the dog, and he ran and 
cavorted and leaped so ludicrously that many 
eyes besides Jerry’s followed him all the way 
around the arena until he disappeared through 
the entrance. 

Then Jerry found that there were several 
acts going on, of which he had missed much. 
When they had finished, another clown came 
along with a big head that looked like some 
kind of a bird’s head. It was way up in the 
air on a long neck with a wide yellow bill 
that every now and then opened and showed 
a red tongue. 

Almost in front of Jerry, the clown stopped, 
bent down his bird-head sidewise and sud- 
denly gave a loud kiss to a little girl sitting 
on the end of the first row. 

The little girl gave a shriek of surprise and 
terror and jumped from the seat and ran up 
the aisle back of Jerry, amid a roar of delight 
from the crowd. The girl hid her face and 
refused to go back to the front row, despite 
the coaxing of her mother. 

149 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

Jerry offered to let her have his seat. He 
was n’t afraid of the clowns. Then the boy 
next to him got up and the woman and the 
girl took their seats while Jerry and the boy 
sat down in the front row, Jerry at the very 
end. He would be close enough to touch 
Whiteface the next time he came around. 

He had forgotten all about Danny and 
Chris and the trick Celia Jane had played 
on him. He was so happy that he would 
willingly have shared with them the pleasure 
of seeing the circus and getting acquainted 
with Whiteface, if that had been possible. 
He wished Kathleen and Nora and Mother 
’Larkey could see it. Never in all his life 
had he been so excited and so happy. He 
wanted more and more. If only the circus 
would never end ! — Anyway, not until he 
was too tired to stay awake one second 
longer. 

Suddenly the band struck into a different 
air, — one that set Jerry’s pulse to beating 
even faster. It was like an echo from the 
past; he had heard it before. It was the 
music he ha d thought he heard when he stood 
before the circus poster of the elephant jump- 
150 


“ GREAT SULT ANNA O’QUEEN” 


ing the fence ! Unconsciously Jerry began 
saying something softly under his breath. 

And the elephants were coming ! Several 
clowns were running ahead. Among them 
Jerry espied Whiteface, and in his excite- 
ment rose to his feet, as they came closer 
and closer. 

As the band played on, words seemed to be 
coming of themselves to Jerry’s tongue, and in 
a sort of rhythmical chant he was repeating 
in time to the music as the elephants got 
directly in front of him : 

“ Great Suit Anna O’Queen, in the jungle, 
Carryin* water for the ellifants, 

Great Suit Anna O’Queen, in the jungle 
Carryin’ water for the ellifants.” 

Jerry was aware that he was crooning, but 
did not know that he had risen to his feet and 
was repeating those two lines of verse out 
loud. 

The band suddenly stopped playing, and in 
the ensuing silence the childish treble of Jerry’s 
voice was heard by every one in that section 
of seats saying : 

“ Great Suit Anna O’Queen, in the jungle, 
Carryin’ water for the ellifants.” 

151 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


He had hardly finished the words when the 
leader in the line of elephants turned small, 
beady eyes towards Jerry, lifted up its trunk 
and trumpeted aloud. Jerry was not fright- 
ened at all by that cry, but held out his arms 
toward the elephant, crying, “Up! Up! 
Suit Anna ! ” as though that were the most 
natural thing in the world to do and he had 
been doing it all his life. 

The elephant trumpeted again and lum- 
bered heavily towards the tier of seats where 
Jerry stood, lowered its trunk and curled it 
about Jerry’s body. 

A great gasp went up from the people 
about Jerry and then some women and men 
cried out and a girl screamed. 

“It ’s mad ! It ’s run amuck !” some one 
cried, and in an instant there was an uproar 
of terror as the people left their seats and 
surged back to higher tiers where they hoped 
the elephant could not reach them. 

“It’s Jerry! It’s Jerry!” came an ago- 
nized scream which Jerry, from his seat high 
in the air on the elephant’s trunk, recognized 
as the voice of Chris. 

“He’ll be killed!” cried Danny’s remorse- 
152 



Jerry held out his arms, crying, “Up! Up! Suit Anna!” 

Page 152. 





“ GREAT SULT ANNA O’QUEEN ” 


ful voice, high and shrill above the uproar. 
“ And it’s all my fault !” 

“Up! Up! Suit Anna !” commanded Jerry, 
and laughed aloud and waved his arms. Why 
were all those people afraid ? Suit Anna 
was n’t going to hurt him ! 

All the clowns had come running about the 
elephant. 

“It ’s Jerry Elbow !” exclaimed Whiteface. 

“It’s Gary!” cried a woman’s voice from 
the palanquin on the elephant’s back. Jerry 
looked at her. She was a very pretty woman 
in a most wonderful sparkling dress, and she 
leaned forward, extending her arms towards 
him. 

Jerry heard the strident voice of the 
elephant-tender commanding Suit Anna to 
lower him and the man started to jab the 
elephant in the trunk, but Whiteface shouted : 

“Don’t touch the elephant! She knows 
the boy !” 

“He ’s not hurt at all!” cried an amazed 
voice in the crowd. 

“Take your seats! There is no danger!” 
Whiteface called to the frightened and huddled 
mass at the top tiers of seats. 

153 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Then the band struck into a lively air and 
circus attendants and spectators ran up to 
the elephants. Among those who arrived 
early were Danny and Chris, frightened but 
curious, and Mr. Burrows. The performance 
was going on in other parts of the big tent 
and the spectators there seemed already to 
have forgotten the incident, but the unre- 
served seat section still seethed with interest, 
apprehension and curiosity. 

“What ’s all this fuss ?” asked Mr. Burrows, 
puffing from the speed with which he had 
hurried to the scene. “We can’t have the 
performance held up this way and the people 
frightened.” 

“As the elephants came along,” explained 
Whiteface, “a boy was singing some of the 
words of my elephant song, and Sultana, 
I believe, recognized him. She trumpeted 
twice, reached out her trunk and carried him 
high into the air. He kept crying, ‘Up! 
Up ! Sultana ! 5 She has not hurt him at 
all” 

Mr. Burrows looked up at Jerry, still 
sitting on the elephant’s trunk. 

“Why, bless my soul!” he exclaimed. 

154 


“ GREAT SULT ANNA O’QUEEN ” 


“ It ’s the orphan boy who helped carry water 
for the elephants this morning ! ” 

“Robert, it’s Gary!” again cried the 
beautiful lady in the palanquin on the ele- 
phant’s back. 

Jerry looked up at her and found her 
weeping. He wondered why she was crying 
and who Gary might be. 

“The other elephants are getting restless,” 
said Mr. Burrows. “Get the boy down, 
Bowe, and take him with you to the dressing 
rooms. The act must go on.” 

Whiteface went up to the elephant and 
began talking to her gently, patting her 
shoulder. Her keeper approached and ordered 
her to put Jerry down. 

“Down, Suit Anna, down!” cried Jerry. 

Hardly were the words out of his mouth 
when Jerry was literally placed by the ele- 
phant in the arms of Whiteface. 

“Who are you?” asked the clown of Jerry, 
looking long into his eyes. 

“He’s Jerry Elbow,” said Danny who, 
with Chris, had edged in close to the little 
crowd surrounding the elephant. “ He ’s a 
orfum and lives with us.” 

155 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“When did his parents die?” 

“He ain’t got no parents,” replied Danny. 
“Have you, Jerry?” 

“No,” said Jerry. 

“Robert, help me down !” called the beauti- 
ful lady on the elephant. 

Whiteface set Jerry down and with two of 
the elephant keepers went to Sultana’s side 
and caught the woman as she half slid, half 
jumped from her high seat. 

As soon as she touched the ground, the lady 
ran to Jerry and he found himself gathered 
convulsively in her arms. 

“ Oh, Gary, my son ! Don't you know me ? 
I am your mother ! ” 


156 


CHAPTER XI 


A Boy Named Gary 

Jerry looked long into the face of the 
lady. It was all pink and white and her lips 
were very red. Her hair was a golden brown 
and it was long and thick and hung down 
her back. 

“Are you my mother?” asked Jerry wist- 
fully. He would like very much to have a 
mother as beautiful as this. 

“Oh, yes, I am! I am!” cried the lady 
and clasped Jerry close to her breast. 

“Helen,” said Whiteface, “you mustn’t 
let your hopes get too high.” 

“He is an orphan,” observed Mr. Burrows, 
“his brother here said so,” and he pointed at 
Chris. 

“He’s not my brother,” interposed Chris 
quickly. “Father found him before he died 
and brought him home.” 

“Then it is Gary! It is!” Exclaimed the 

157 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


beautiful lady. “As if I would n’t know him 
— his eyes, his hair and his lips ! Or as if 
Sultana could be mistaken. What is your 
name, dear; do you remember that?” 

“Jerry Elbow,” replied Jerry. 

“What is yours?” Whiteface asked Chris. 

“Chris Mullarkey,” he replied. 

“How long has Jerry been with you?” 

“Three years,” put in Danny. 

“He was only three and a half then,” said 
the woman, “and probably couldn’t say his 
name very plainly. He could n’t at the time 
he was stolen. Gary L. Bowe would sound 
very much like Jerry Elbow to any one who 
did n’t know.” 

“You ’re right,” said Whiteface. “I believe 
he is our boy.” 

Jerry looked up at the clown and such an 
expression of delight came over his face at the 
idea of the clown being his father that White- 
face’s voice went all husky and he took Jerry 
in his arms. 

“Do you remember anything about your 
parents?” he asked. 

“Seems as though there was a man with a 
white face,” replied Jerry. 

158 


A BOY NAMED GARY 


“That would be you, Robert,” said the 
woman named Helen. 

“Are you my father?” Jerry asked, putting 
an arm timidly about the clown’s shoulder. 

“Of course he is!” cried Mr. Burrows, 
blowing his nose until it made a formidable 
sound. “Bowe, you take your wife and 
child into the dressing tent, so the circus can 
go on. Sultana is getting restless.” 

Whiteface took Jerry up in his arms and his 
new-found mother clung to his hand as they 
started to leave the arena, tears still in her 
eyes. She stopped to call to Danny and 
Chris to follow them. Sultana lifted up her 
trunk and trumpeted. As they tramped 
along, the spectators craning their necks to 
get a better view, Jerry heard Mr. Burrows 
saying in a loud voice to the audience in the 
section where he had sat : 

“Ladies and gentlemen, there is no oc- 
casion for alarm. The elephant, Sultana, 
recognized in the boy, Jerry Elbow, the son 
of our famous clown, Robert Ellison Bowe, 
who was stolen from the circus in a neighbor- 
ing State three years ago by a disgruntled 
employee. The police of the country had 
159 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


been searching for him and Mr. Bowe had 
spent thousands of dollars in the effort to 
find him. What money and mind and trained 
detective intelligence failed to do, the retentive 
memory of the elephant, Sultana, has accom- 
plished and, thanks to her, a grieving father 
and mother are reunited with their long-lost 
son. The performance will now continue 
and you will see what a great degree of in- 
telligence is possessed by these pachyderms 
in the tricks which they will now perform for 
your gratification.” 

And how the people shouted and applauded 
at that ! 

“Bow to them. They are cheering for 
you,” said Whiteface to Jerry. “They are 
glad you have been found.” 

Jerry waved his hands to them and bowed 
and a patter of hand-clapping ran along the 
audience as they passed until they reached 
the entrance. 

Chris suddenly cried, “Danny! Look at 
them el’funts ! They ’re standin’ on their 
heads! Lookee!” 

Jerry just had to see that and he squirmed 
around in Whiteface’s arms. 

160 


A BOY NAMED GARY 


“They’re funny!” he laughed. “Which 
one is Suit Anna?” 

“She’s the one at the table,” replied his 
mother, “ringing the bell for a waiter to bring 
her something to eat.” 

“ Can el’f unts do that ? ” Jerry asked amazed. 

“Much more than that, Gary,” she re- 
sponded. 

“I guess el’funts know more ’n some 
people,” Danny remarked. 

Jerry craned his neck to see the elephants. 

“Are they going to jump the fence now?” 
he asked. 

W T hiteface burst into a joyous laugh. 

“Helen, I told you my idea for a circus 
poster would fetch the children!” he said. 
“They don’t jump a fence,” he explained to 
Jerry. 

“ Oh, yes ! ” exclaimed Jerry. “The picture 
shows them doing it!” 

“They don’t really, Gary,” said his mother. 
“The picture was just drawn that way to fit 
the old nursery rhyme about the elephant’s 
jumping up to the sky.” 

“Then it ain’t so?” Jerry asked, terribly 
disappointed. 


161 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“No,” replied Whiteface, “but they do 
other things more remarkable than that.” 

“What?” asked Jerry. “I want to see 
them.” 

“Of course you do,” said his father. “You 
want to see all the circus and you shall 
to-night, and Mrs. Mullarkey and Celia Jane, 
too.” 

“All of it?” questioned Jerry. “The little 
man no bigger than a two-year-old baby and 
the sword-swallower and all?” 

“And all,” replied Whiteface. “The me- 
nagerie and the side show and the main per- 
formance.” 

“Will Nora and Kathleen see it all, too?” 

“Who are Nora and Kathleen ?” his mother 
asked. 

“Why, they ’re Danny’s sisters!” he re- 
plied. “ Did n’t you know that ? ” 

“You had n’t mentioned them before,” 
said Whiteface, “but they ’ll see it, too. Are 
there any more in the Mullarkey family?” 

“No,” answered Jerry, “just Danny and 
Chris and Nora and Celia Jane and Kath- 
leen and Mother ’Larkey.” 

By that time they had reached a part of 
162 


A BOY NAMED GARY 


another tent which was all screened off into 
small rooms, into one of which Whiteface and 
the lady carried Jerry, followed by Danny 
and Chris, who, torn between their desire 
to see the elephants perform and their curi- 
osity about Jerry’s new-found father and 
mother and their desire to obey the beautiful 
lady, had kept close at their heels. 

“Now,” said Mrs. Bowe, seating herself 
on a bench and taking Jerry on her lap, ad- 
dressing Danny as the oldest, “tell me all 
you can about Gary.” 

“Father found him one night along a 
country road, cry in’ in a fence corner, and 
brought him home,” said Danny, “ an’ he ’s 
lived with us ever since. That ’s all.” 

“How long ago was that?” she questioned. 

“It was when I was five an’ a half,” re- 
plied Danny. 

“How old are you now?” Whiteface asked. 

“Eight and more ’n a half.” 

“Three years ago,” said Mrs. Bowe. “That 
was only a few months after he was stolen. 
How did he happen to be alone in a country 
road?” 

“I don’t know,” replied Danny. 

163 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Perhaps your mother knows,” suggested 
Whiteface. 

“ I don’t think so,” Danny replied. “Father 
always said it was a mystery. It was very 
late at night — almost midnight, I guess.” 

“We must see her, Robert, and thank her 
for taking care of Gary.” 

“Yes,” said Whiteface, “she kept him after 
her husband’s death — with five children of 
her own. She must have liked him very — ” 

“She does,” Chris interrupted eagerly. 

“We all do,” Danny stated. 

“How could you help it?” asked Mrs. 
Bowe. “Now, Gary, can you tell me any- 
thing about what happened to you? Think 
hard.” 

“Yes,” said his father. “We left you in 
the dressing room with one of the girl acro- 
bats while we were on and when we came back 
you were gone. The girl had been called 
out for a few minutes and got back just as 
we did. We hunted all over the circus for 
you and got the police to help us.” 

“Do you remember any one taking you 
away?” asked the beautiful lady who was 
now his mother. 


164 


A BOY NAMED GARY 


44 No ’m,” replied Jerry. 

“Say, Mother, Gary,” pleaded her low, 
beautiful voice close to his ear. 

“No, Mother,” Jerry repeated obediently. 

“Try to think awfully hard,” said White- 
face ; 44 was there a man with a big mark across 
his forehead — ” 

44 A red mark?” interrupted Jerry eagerly. 

44 Yes !” cried his mother. 44 Robert, it was 
John Rand ! I knew it was that low 
creature.” 

“I feared it,” said the clown. 

44 What did he do to you, Gary? Was he 
kind to you?” asked his mother. 

Jerry seemed to see in a flash a man with 
a red mark across his forehead cuffing him 
over the head and twisting his arm till he 
cried out from the pain. 

“I ’ll pull your arm right out if you ever 
tell any one you ain’t my brat,” a coarse, 
thick voice seemed to be saying in his ear , 44 or 
if you ever let on as how I ever hurt you in 
anyway at all.” 

Jerry cowered down in his mother’s arms 
and hid his face against her breast. He did 
not answer her questions. His heart was 
165 

I 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


galloping with fear. The man with the red 
scar might come back. 

“Why don’t you answer, Gary?” asked 
the clown gently. “Don’t you remember?” 

Jerry felt the lady who was his mother 
holding him tighter in her arms and then 
she gave a sudden start. He did not answer. 
He was afraid to. 

“ Robert ! ” she cried. “ His heart is beating 
as though it would burst! The memory of 
that beast must frighten him terribly.” 

“He can never hurt you again, Gary,” 
Whiteface assured him. “You will always 
be with us from now on and we won’t let him 
ever come near you again. Did he ever 
hurt you?” 

Jerry, remembering now vividly what the 
man had done to him, became more frightened 
than ever and, instead of answering, began 
to cry. 

“We must not hurry him into confidence,” 
said Whiteface. 

“Oh, my boy!” wailed the elephant lady. 
“How terribly you must have suffered when 
my heart was aching so to know you were 
safe and to comfort and love you ! ” 

166 


A BOY NAMED GARY 


She kissed him passionately and squeezed 
him so hard that his breath went entirely 
out of his body for a moment. 

“Has Gary evet told you anything about 
the man who stole him?” asked Whiteface 
of Danny. 

“No,” he replied, “but Jerry ran away 
from him.” 

“How do you know that?” 

“He said he had when he was going to run 
away from us. 5 

“Why was he going to run away from 
you?” 

Danny swallowed rapidly but didn’t 
answer. 

“Because Danny wouldn’t let him be el’funt 
in our play circus,” Chris explained for his 
brother. 

Mr. Bowe took Chris’ words up so quickly 
that Jerry thought his father was angry with 
Chris. 

“Wouldn’t let him be the elephant!” he 
exclaimed. “Why did Gary want especially 
to be the elephant?” 

“I don’t know,” Chris answered. 

“Remember, if you can,” urged Whiteface. 

167 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“It will help me to prove to every one that 
Gary is our boy.” 

“I guess it was because he knew something 
about el’funts,” Danny ventured. “He knew 
that el’funts’ tails are small and round like a 
rope, but he did n’t know how he knew.” 

“I see,” said the clown. “That is an 
important fact. I’m glad you told me.” 

“An’ he said ‘O Queen’ when he saw the 
picture of the el’funt jumping the fence!” 
cried Danny excitedly. “Just the same as 
he did at the circus when the band stopped 
playin’ an’ before the el’funt picked him up.” 

“He did n’t know he said it,” Chris added, 
“an’ he could n’t tell Danny what he meant 
by it, could he, Danny ?” 

“No,” Danny replied. 

“That clinches it!’ exclaimed Whiteface, 
and took Jerry from his mother’s arms. 
“Don’t you cry any more, Gary -boy. Nobody 
shall hurt you again. O’Queen was what you 
used to call Sultana, the elephant — ‘ Suit 
Anna O’Queen,’ as though that were her name. 
It was the way you said a part of one line in 
my elephant song : ‘ Great Sultana, Oh, Queen 
of the jungle !” 


168 


A BOY NAMED GARY 

“Carryin’ water for the ellifants,” said 
Jerry, through his tears. 

“Do you remember any of the chorus?” 

Jerry thought hard, but finally shook his 
head. Whiteface then started to repeat the 
chorus : 

“ ‘ Ho, ye drowsy drones ! The Queen is a-thirst ; 

A penny for him who brings a pail first. 

Hurry and scurry * ” 

Jerry suddenly found that he did remember 
what came next and interrupted his father : 

“ ‘ an’ go at a prance ! ’ ” 

“That ’s it !” cried Mrs. Bowe. 

“‘Run to the spring,’” quoted Mr. Bowe 
and Jerry finished : 

“ 4 an’ back at a dance. 

Bringing water for the ellifants ! ’ ” 

Jerry felt so proud of himself for having re- 
membered so much that he forgot all about the 
man with the red scar and being afraid of him. 

“I ’membered it, did n’t I, Whiteface?” 

“Yes,” answered the clown, “you did, and 
it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that 
you are my lost little son and you ’ve got the 
right to call me father.” 

169 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

. “Father / 5 said Jerry experimentally, trying 
to see how it sounded. And then “Father ! 55 
he cried exultantly. 

“And not mother, too ? 55 asked the elephant- 
lady in a reproachful tone. 

“And Mother ! 55 cried Jerry, sliding out of 
his father’s arms and running to her. He 
climbed upon her lap and buried his face on 
her shoulder and gave her neck a very hard 
hug, just to show how much he was going to 
love her. 

“Oh, you are my own darling, loving 
Gary ! 55 she cried in a voice that was tearful, 
but very joyful through the tearfulness, while 
she almost squeezed the breath out of Jerry 
again. “And now we must go at once and 
thank kind, good Mrs. Mullarkey for caring 
for our boy . 55 

“Yes , 55 said her husband. “The circus is 
out and we will have time before the evening 
performance . 55 

“Mother 5 Larkey will be awful glad to see 
the circus , 55 Jerry remarked. “She ain’t seen 
none since just after she was married. An 5 
so will Nora and Celia Jane . 55 


170 


CHAPTER XII 
The Dizzy Seat of Glory 

“You boys wait here while Helen and I 
get ready,” said Whiteface, “and then we ’ll 
pay our respects to Mrs. Mullarkey and Nora 
and Celia Jane and Kathleen.” 

“You won’t go out of the tent, will you, 
Gary?” asked the elephant-lady. 

“No ’m,” Jerry promised, and then at the 
look of disappointment and longing on her 
face, cried, “No, Mother !” He ran and gave 
her a good-by hug. “I ’ll wait right here.” 

When Jerry and Danny and Chris were 
left alone, there was an abashed silence at 
first, broken after a minute by Chris’ re- 
marking : 

“Gee, ain’t it excitin’, Jerry! Findin’ 
your father and mother an’ being lifted up 
in a el’funt’s trunk an’ your father a clown 
in the circus and all?” 

“Yes,” smiled Jerry with satisfaction. 
“He ’s the greatest clown ever lived.” 

171 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“I guess that’s so,” Danny stated judicially 
and also apologetically, for he wished to make 
up with Jerry for getting his circus ticket 
away from him. 

“It is so!” cried Jerry emphatically. 

“That’s what I meant, Jerry — I mean, 
Gary.” A silence fell and then Danny con- 
tinued : “I wish I’d never of asked Celia 
Jane to cry and get your ticket away from 
you.” 

Jerry said nothing, as he remembered how 
Danny had tricked him, and Danny, after 
shifting about uneasily, added as though in 
justification of his action : 

“If I hadn’t of, you’d probably never of 
met your father. He could n’t of spoken to 
you if he had n’t seen you before you got into 
the circus.” 

That impressed Jerry as a point of view that 
might be true and somehow he did n’t feel 
angry at Danny and Celia Jane any more. 
He was too happy at having a clown for his 
father to hold resentment. 

“Mebbe not,” was all he said, but Danny 
took those words as meaning that Jerry 
was n’t going to stay mad. 

m 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 


“How’d you get in?” he asked eagerly.- 

“Whiteface thought of a way that did n’t 
cost any money,” replied Jerry. 

“What kind of a way was that?” Danny 
was all eagerness for information of that sort. 

“I don’t know,” said Jerry. “He thought 
of something an’ told me to keep my eyes 
shut an’ I did n’t see what he done.” 

“Didn’t you open ’em jest once?” de- 
manded Danny. “ I would of and then mebbe 
we could of got into other circuses that way.” 

“It might of mixed our thoughts, like when 
I said something when he told me not to,” 
Jerry observed. 

“What d’you mean, mixin’your thoughts ?” 

Jerry was saved by the entrance of Mr. 
Burrows from trying to explain just what he 
did mean by that, for he had n’t understood 
very well himself. The circus man was 
smiling all over as he approached Jerry and 
seemed just as pleased that Jerry had found 
his parents as Jerry was himself. 

“Well, well, well,” he said, holding out a 
hand which Jerry accepted in the same 
amicable spirit in which it was offered, “so 
you ’re the son of Robert Bowe ! We were 
173 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


good friends before you were stolen and I 
hope will be again when you get reacquainted 
with me. Maybe your father and mother 
will be satisfied to stay with the circus now 
that you have been found.” 

“Was they goin’ to leave the circus ?” asked 
Danny in an awed voice. 

“So they said,” answered Mr. Burrows, 
“but now I guess they ’ll stay.” 

“Go away an’ not be a clown no more?” 
Jerry asked this new-old friend, as one man 
to another. 

“Go away and not be a clown any more,” 
Mr. Burrows asserted. 

Just then a man and woman entered and 
came straight to Jerry. Why, it was Jerry’s 
mother and a strange man ! 

Mrs. Bowe did n’t look the same in an 
ordinary blue dress and without the paint 
on her cheeks and lips and yet Jerry had 
recognized her almost at once ; perhaps it was 
her golden-brown hair, or, more likely, the 
joy which sparkled in her eyes and lighted 
up her face. 

“I did n’t go away once, Mother,” he said. 

She smiled at him and the strange man spoke. 

174 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 


“I knew you would n’t,” he said. 

Jerry was dumfounded and so must Danny 
and Chris have been, for they gasped. The 
voice that issued from the lips of the strange 
man was the voice of Whiteface, the clown, 
the new-found father of Jerry ! 

Jerry’s thoughts were paralyzed for a 
minute and he could only stare up at Robert 
Bowe, ordinary citizen, in stupefaction. 

So that was what his father looked like 
when he did n’t have the clown costume on, 
with his face all chalked and his lips rouged ! 
Just a common, ordinary, everyday, plain 
man, like — like Dan Mullarkey was, or 
Tom Phillips or Darn Darner’s father. He 
was not very tall and not very big, and his 
face was rather long and there was quite a 
sprinkling of gray in his hair. 

Jerry was so terribly disappointed in his 
father that, after that long stare, he gazed 
away and would not look up at him again. 
He winked his eyes to keep the tears from 
coming. 

“What is it, Jerry?” asked Mrs. Bowe. 
“Tell mother.” 

Jerry tried to think of something to say 
175 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


that would n’t hurt his father’s feelings or 
his mother’s, but could n’t, and he stood there 
in misery and disappointment, his lips quiver- 
ing and twisting and the tears gathering on 
his eyelashes. 

It was Danny who voiced the emotions that 
Jerry was experiencing. 

“You look different,” he said. “Only 
your voice sounds the same.” 

“Bless my soul!” cried Mr. Burrows, and 
laughed heartily. “The boy’s disappointed 
that his father’s just a man and not a clown.” 

“Is that it, Jerry?” asked his mother, 
falling to her knees and gathering him close 
to her breast. 

“He ain’t Whiteface,” Jerry mourned softly 
in her ear. 

Mr. Bowe laughed at that, and it was such 
a good-humored, infectious chuckle of mirth 
that Jerry at last looked up at his very dis- 
appointing father, and the twinkle in his 
father’s eyes and the engaging, twisty smile 
that played about his lips comforted Jerry. 
This father of his was n’t so ordinary looking, 
after all ! But a clown is so much more in- 
teresting than just an everyday father. 

176 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 


“You ’ll see Whiteface often enough/’ he 
promised Jerry, “to satisfy even you.” 

“Nora won’t,” said Jerry, “nor Kathleen 
nor Celia Jane.” 

“The boy’s right!” exclaimed Mr. Bur- 
rows. “Dress up as the clown to see the 
woman who ’s cared for Gary and I ’ll have 
Sultana got ready for you to ride on. The 
boy ’s a better press agent than the one I pay 
to advertise the circus. I announced that 
Sultana had found your stolen child and told 
the newspaper men all about it. You and 
your wife ride on Sultana through the town, 
and you ’ll be followed by all the children at 
the circus and those who are not here, and the 
circus will get such an advertising as it never 
had before. And it will make Gary happy, 
too.” 

“Will it, Gary?” asked his father. 

“Yes !” cried Jerry, thrilled at the thought 
of riding through the town on an elephant, 
with his father and mother. “It ’ll be better 
’n a circus.” 

“Robert Bowe, disappear!” commanded 
Robert Bowe. 

That Surprising father of Jerry’s wagged 
177 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


his head solemnly with such a comical look 
that Jerry shrieked with delight as Mr. Bowe 
turned a handspring that carried him through 
the curtains into another part of the tent. 

Mr. Burrows went out laughing, to have 
Sultana brought around, and Jerry waited 
impatiently for Whiteface to reappear. His 
most blissful dreams had been exceeded this 
wonderful day, and now the most wonderful 
part was still to come. 

He was too excited to pay very close atten- 
tion to what his mother said, and Danny and 
Chris seemed to have been struck dumb by 
this dazzling height of glory that was about 
to befall “Orfum” Jerry Elbow, who had 
suddenly been transformed into Gary L. 
Bowe, son of a clown and of an elephant-lady. 

Suddenly there sounded the delightful click- 
ing that Whiteface made with his mouth and 
Jerry’s eyes almost popped out of his head in 
his eagerness for Whiteface to reappear. He 
watched the curtain where his everyday 
father had disappeared, without daring to 
wink his eyes for fear Whiteface would get 
in without his seeing him. 

As he watched, he felt himself being lifted 
178 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 

in a pair of strong arms and twisted his head 
around to see who it might be. 

It was Whiteface ! He had got back with- 
out Jerry’s seeing him ! Yet Jerry was sure 
he had n’t winked his eyes, not even once. 

4 4 Away we go to the Mullarkey house ! 
Away we go to the Mullarkey house!” 
chanted Whiteface, whirling around and 
around, as he carried Jerry on his shoulder 
out of the tent to where Sultana and an 
elephant keeper were awaiting them. Jerry’s 
mother followed close, smiling at his delight. 
From the corner of his eye, Jerry saw Danny 
and Chris walking slowly behind her. 

The keeper put up a little ladder against 
the elephant’s side and Whiteface ran lightly 
up it and deposited Jerry on a cushioned seat 
that ran around the little house on Sultana’s 
back that he called a howdah. Then he 
helped Mrs. Bowe up and sat down by her. 
The keeper had taken the ladder away when 
Jerry again saw Danny and Chris looking 
up at him in envy. There was plenty of room 
in the little house for them. He turned to 
his father. 

44 Is Great Suit Anna O’Queen’s back strong 
179 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


enough for her to carry Danny and Chris, 
too?” 

The most surprised look spread over White- 
face’s features and the beautiful lady re- 
marked : 

“Gary has your kind, thoughtful nature.” 

“I think Great Suit Anna O’Queen’s Irish 
back is strong enough to carry Danny and 
Chris. I ’ll ask her. First though, we ’d 
better find out how much they weigh?” 

“How much do you weigh, Danny?” Jerry 
called down. 

“I don’t know,” replied Danny. 

“If you don’t weigh too much, mebbe you 
and Chris can ride, too.” 

“Us ride on a el’funt!” exclaimed Danny. 
“Why, why, I don’t weigh much, do I, Chris ? ” 

“No,” replied Chris eagerly. “You ’re not 
big enough to weigh much and I ’m littler 
than you are.” ' j 

“I think I can tell near enough,” said 
Whiteface; “Danny weighs about sixty 
pounds and Chris about forty. That makes 
one hundred pounds and I weigh one hundred 
and sixty-five. Helen, how much do you 
weigh ? ” 


180 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 


“A hundred and twenty pounds/’ she 
answered. 

“ I never can remember that. That makes 
two hundred and sixty-five and one hundred 
and twenty is three hundred and eighty-five 
pounds and there ’s Gary. He must weigh 
thirty pounds — say four hundred and fifteen 
pounds altogether.” 

Whiteface jumped from the little house on 
Sultana’s back to her head, sat down on top 
of that, leaned over and whispered something 
in the elephant’s ear. 

Jerry stood up so he could see better, and 
as he did so the elephant’s ear, which White- 
face had lifted up, wiggled and flopped out 
of the clown’s hand. 

“She says four hundred and fifteen pounds 
is not too much on this occasion. Whiteface 
announced and directed the keeper to help 
Danny and Chris up to Sultana’s back. But 
Danny and Chris did n’t need any help in 
running up the ladder. 

Then Mr. Burrows approached and tossed 
a bit of paper up to Mrs. Bowe. 

“That’s a pass for a box at the circus to-night 
for Mrs. Mullarkey and all her family,” he said. 

181 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“Is one pass good for all of them?” asked 
Jerry, as Danny caught the precious bit of 
paper and handed it to Mrs. Bowe. 

“Yes,” laughed Mr. Burrows, “it is when 
it ’s got the name of Edward J. Burrows on 
it. Just tell her to show that to the ticket 
seller and he ’ll give her the seats.” 

Then Whiteface, still sitting on top of the 
elephant’s head, told the keeper he was ready 
and Sultana started. It took Jerry and 
Danny and Chris quite a while to become 
accustomed to the manner in which the 
palanquin joggled about on Sultana’s back, 
but they were getting used to it when the 
elephant reached the street close to the 
entrance of the main tent where the people 
were streaming out from the performance. 

There was a shout from the small boys in 
the crowd who immediately swarmed about 
Sultana and tagged on in the rear as she 
ambled patiently down the street. They 
looked enviously at Jerry and Danny and 
Chris and raised such a hubbub that every 
child they passed and many of the grown 
persons, too, fell in line. The story of how 
the elephant had recognized the lost boy and 
182 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 


picked him right up out of the audience 
passed rapidly from mouth to mouth, with the 
result that no one left the ever lengthening 
procession that followed the elephant. 

Jerry took turns with Danny and Chris in 
directing the elephant keeper how to get to 
Mrs. Mullarkey’s. Jerry would not have 
missed one joggle or sway of that ride for 
worlds. He saw Darn Darner in the crowd 
following them, and he was glad that such a 
stuck-up boy should see what a high place in 
the world Jerry Elbow had reached and be 
envious of him. He even waved to Darn to 
make sure that Darn knew that he saw him. 

“Hello, Jerry !” cried Darn in a loud voice, 
so that everybody would know he knew Jerry, 
and swaggered up close to the elephant. 
“How does it seem to be ridin’ on an el’- 
funt ?” 

“Fine!” Jerry exclaimed ecstatically. 

“Don’t you wish you was up here ?” Danny 
asked in a voice that was not nearly so friendly 
as Jerry’s had been. 

“ Anybody would, I guess,” was Darn’s reply. 

“Well, you ain’t,” said Danny. “You’re 
down there breathing the dust we make.” 

183 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“There ’s the house !” cried Jerry. 

“Wliich one?” asked Whiteface from his 
seat on the elephant’s head. 

“The one with the paint all wore off,” 
Danny explained. 

“There’s Nora and Celia Jane!” cried 
Chris. 

“I see them!” Jerry exclaimed and called 
his mother’s attention to them. They were 
standing by the gate, watching the strange 
procession approach. 

“Hello, Celia Jane! I’m ridin’ on a 
el’funt ! ” Jerry cried shrilly to make her 
hear. 

Celia Jane both heard and saw and she 
seemed glued to the gate-post with surprise. 
Her mouth opened as though she were going 
to speak and remained open, without a word 
coming out. Nora turned and fled into the 
house crying : 

“Mother! Mother! Jerry’s ridin’ by on 
a el’funt from the circus!” 

A moment later the keeper halted Sultana 
in front of the gate, and that fact unglued 
Celia Jane from the gate-post and caused 
words at last to flow from her opened mouth. 

184 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 


“Mother! They’re stoppin’ here!” she 
cried, in turn running to the house. She kept 
her eyes turned back on the elephant and ran 
into Nora, who was pulling Mrs. Mullarkey, 
with Kathleen in her arms, out through the 
door. 

Whiteface now commanded Sultana to help 
him down, and she raised her trunk, wrapped 
it around his body and lowered him to the 
ground. The crowd of boys and girls who 
had pushed up as close as they could made 
way for him, while Jerry and his mother 
climbed down the ladder the elephant trainer 
placed for them, followed by Danny and Chris. 

“Mother!” called Celia Jane. “There’s 
Danny on the el’funt and Chris too ! ” 

“For land sakes!” cried Mrs. Mullarkey. 
“Nothing has happened to any of the chil- 
dren, has there ?” 

“We ’re all right, Mother ’Larkey !” Jerry 
assured her. 

“Nothing at all, madam,” said Whiteface 
approaching her, “except that Jerry Elbow 
has found his parents.” 

Mrs. Mullarkey stared at Whiteface, too 
astounded to speak. 


185 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


“An’ his name ain’t Jerry Elbow,” cried 
Danny. “It ’s Gary L. Bowe.” 

“An’ the el’funt knew him in a whole 
crowd of people,” Chris added, “an’ picked 
him up with its trunk.” 

“The people thought the elephant was 
mad at first,” said Darn Darner, who had 
approached as close as he could get to the 
clown. 

“The el’funt picked him up in its trunk?” 
gasped Celia Jane, her eyes growing bigger 
and bigger. 

“An’ we ’re all goin’ to the circus to-night !” 
Danny informed them. 

“All of us !” Celia Jane got breath enough 
to utter. 

“Me, too?” Nora asked. 

“Yes, all of you!” laughed Jerry. “And 
Kathleen, too.” 

“I wanta see serka,” cried the baby. 

“And so you shall,” said Whiteface, so 
close that Kathleen drew whimpering away 
from his white, chalky features. “It’s all 
true, Mrs. Mullarkey.” 

“Don’t be afraid of Whiteface, Kathleen,” 
called Jerry. “He ’s father.” 

186 


THE DIZZY SEAT OF GLORY 


At last Mrs. Mullarkey found her voice, 
but at the queer, choking sound she made, 
Jerry looked up and saw tears running down 
her face. 

“I can’t tell you how glad I am that you 
have found your father and mother, Jerry,” 
she said. “Mr, Darner is here now and, after 
all, he was going to take you away — this 
very day. And Celia Jane — ’* She could n’t 
finish, but put Kathleen down and covered 
her face with her apron, rocking her body back 
and forth. 

Jerry looked towards the house and saw 
at the living-room window the face of a man, 
— a large, heavy face that seemed to scowl 
out at the crowd. 


187 


CHAPTER XIII 


“ — and Elephants to Ride Upon” 

Jerry’s new-found mother went quickly 
to Mother ’Larkey and placed a comforting 
arm about her shoulder. 

“I am Mrs. Bowe, Gary’s mother,” she 
said, “and oh, how can I ever thank you for 
loving him and giving him a home ? I never 
can repay you.” 

“That we can’t, Mrs. Mullarkey,” White- 
face interposed. “But what is this about 
taking Gary away? And Celia Jane?” 

“Let’s go into the house first,” suggested 
Mrs. Bowe. “W T e have too big an audience 
here.” 

She led the way, her arm still about Mrs. 
Mullarkey’s shoulder. Jerry and his father 
followed, though Jerry turned at the door to 
have another look at Sultana and the admir- 
ing throng of children gathered about her. 

Nora and Celia Jane, who had lapsed into 
tongue-tiedness after learning that they were 
188 


ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON” 


( 6 


all going to see the circus that night, now 
started slowly into the house, Kathleen cling- 
ing to Nora’s hand to keep from falling. 
But their eyes were turned back towards 
Sultana until they passed through the door. 

Danny and Chris were also of two minds 
whether to follow the great clown or remain 
outside with the elephant, but their mother’s 
statement that Mr. Darner had come to take 
Jerry away and was even then in the house 
finally drew them as a magnet, their eyes 
also directed towards Sultana until they 
stumbled through the door. 

Jerry saw Darn Darner’s father sitting by 
the living-room window and came to a stop. 
Mr. Darner was a dour, heavy-set man with 
a coarse, bristling gray beard. He glared at 
Whiteface through thick glasses. 

“What does all this hullabaloo mean?” 
he asked Mrs. Mullarkey, in a gruff voice. 

“It means,” said Whiteface, answering 
for her and advancing towards Mr. Darner, 
Jerry’s hand held tightly in his, “that Jerry 
Elbow has found his parents and the people 
have followed us here to show how glad they 
are.” 


189 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

“You his father? A clown in a circus?” 
asked Mr. Darner. 

“Yes, I am his father and I am a clown in a 
circus,” replied Whiteface. 

“Mr. Darner is the County Overseer of the 
Poor,” Mrs. Mullarkey explained. “He’s 
been at me to give Jerry up and let him take 
him to the poor farm ever since my Dan 
died.” 

“It ’s for your own good and your chil- 
dren’s — and Jerry’s, too, if you weren’t 
too blind to see it,” the Overseer stated. 

“After Dan’s insurance money was all 
gone — and a good part of it went to finish 
paying for this house,” Mrs. Mullarkey con- 
tinued, “I could n’t make enough to keep the 
children decently. Mr. Darner ’s kept telling 
me that if I did n’t let him take Jerry to the 
poor farm, I ’d break down sooner or later 
and have to send my own children there or 
let them be adopted out. Mr. Phillips 
thought he could help — ” 

“Phillips is always butting into things that 
are none of his business,” growled Mr. Darner. 

“But this afternoon Mr. Darner came to 
take Jerry and I just could n’t hold out any 
190 


“ — ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON 


longer — I have n’t the money or the strength. 
And he wants Danny to go to a place in the 
country to work for his board and wants me 
to let Celia Jane be adopted by a family in 
Hampton who are looking for a girl. He 
thinks I ought to see if Celia Jane won’t suit 
them.” 

“ Mother! Take me away from home!” 
wailed Celia Jane aghast. 

“I ’m at the end of my string,” Mrs. 
Mullarkey’s discouraged voice continued. 
“I ’ve never been able to make both ends 
meet since Dan died.” 

“She couldn’t make them meet so ’s to 
give us money to buy tickets to the circus,” 
Jerry explained corroboratively to his father. 

“You ’ll have to come to it eventually, 
Mrs. Mullarkey,” warned the County Over- 
seer. “This is a good chance for Celia Jane. 
The Thompsons are well fixed ; they ’ll give 
her a fine home and a good education.” 

Celia Jane at that sat down on the floor and 
let her body relax into a limp bundle. 

“I won’t go !” she sobbed. “I won’t leave 
mother ! What would I do without mother ? ” 

Jerry was very much distressed at Celia 

191 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Jane’s misery and he looked pleadingly up 
at his clown-father ; that extraordinary man 
knew without a word having been spoken 
that Jerry expected him to fix things so that 
Celia Jane could stay with her mother. 
Whiteface spoke at once. 

“ Don’t cry, Celia Jane. Nobody is going 
to take you away. Both ends are going to 
meet now. You ’re all going to stay here 
with your mother.” 

“You talk big,” grumbled Mr. Darner. 
“Now to come down to brass tacks. 
Who ’s— ” 

“As long as I have any money, Mr. County 
Overseer,” said Whiteface, “or as long as I 
have the power to make any, the Mullarkey 
household will not be broken up.” 

“Of course it won’t, Robert,” chimed in 
Jerry’s mother in a crisp voice, as she raised 
Celia Jane from the floor and comforted her. 
“You always know just what to do.” 

Jerry’s father continued : 

“We are going to take Gary with us now, 
but we are going to try to repay Mrs. Mul- 
larkey a little for all she has done and suffered 
for our boy. I have some money saved up 
192 


“ — ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON ” 


and make a good salary. I want you to go 
to Mr. Burrows, one of the proprietors of the 
circus, and satisfy yourself on that point and 
that I am a man of my word. While you are 
doing that we can arrange with Mrs. Mul- 
larkey. We want to be alone with her. I ’ll 
see you again before to-night’s performance.” 

Mr. Darner stood up. 

44 1 do not doubt your desire or ability in 
the matter,” he said, 44 and, as you wish it, 
I will consult Mr. Burrows. Nobody can be 
gladder than I am that things have turned 
out this way. I don’t like breaking up 
families and taking children out to the farm, 
though some people say that I do. I have to 
do a lot of things that go against the grain. 
I ’ve wanted to do what was best for you, 
Mrs. Mullarkey.” 

44 We are sure you meant things for the 
best, Mr. Darner,” said Jerry’s mother. 
44 Good-by.” 

Mrs. Mullarkey was looking so hard at 
Jerry’s parents that she did not return Mr. 
Darner’s 44 Good afternoon” as he left the 
house or seem even to have heard it. 

44 It can’t be true, what you just said,” she 
193 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


at length articulated in a choked voice. 
“Such things don’t happen to us.” 

“It is true,” Jerry’s mother assured her. 

“We shall not forget what you have done 
for Gary,” said Whiteface. “I calculate that 
I owe you at the least one thousand dollars 
for taking care of him — ” 

“A thousand dollars!” gasped Danny. 
“ Why, that ’s as much as father’s insurance ! 
I did n’t know anybody could get that much 
money unless they died!” 

Mrs. Mullarkey said nothing ; her lips 
were trying to smile though the tears still 
stood in her eyes. 

“Besides which,” continued the clown, 
“Helen and I will help you look out for the 
children and we want you to call on us any 
time that you may be in trouble.” 

“We do, indeed,” said Jerry’s mother. 
“You cannot work so hard and take care of 
your children the way you want to. If you 
only lived near us — ” 

“Helen,” interrupted Jerry’s father, “I ’ve 
been thinking, now that we are going to settle 
down in business, it would be a wise thing 
for Mrs. Mullarkey to sell her place here and 
194 


“ — ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON ” 


move to Carroll with us. Then we ’ll know 
how they are getting on and can look after 
the children some. I ’ll help her dispose of 
the place here and buy one in Carroll, if she 
would like such an arrangement.” 

“ Would you, Mrs. Mullarkey?” asked 
Jerry’s mother. 

It took her such a long time to answer that 
Jerry looked up and saw her lips were twist- 
ing. She was crying inside so that you 
could n’t hear her. Jerry knew how that 
hurt — to cry when you did n’t dare cry out 
loud. He had often done it in the night, 
before he ran away, so the man with the big 
red scar would n’t hear him. He left his 
mother and Kathleen, climbed up on Mother 
’Larkey’s lap, put one arm about her neck 
and with his other hand patted her wet 
cheek. 

“An’ then Kathleen won’t cry for me,” he 
coaxed, “’cause I’ll be right there an’ can 
run over any time, could n’t I, Mother?” 

“Yes, of course you could, dear.” 

“There, you see,” he continued. 

“I should love to,” Mrs. Mullarkey re- 
plied at last to Mr. and Mrs. Bowe. “It 
195 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


would be such a relief to have some one I 
could go to for advice about the children. 
It ’s not that they ’re wayward or bad, but 
Danny is hot-headed like his father and 
thoughtless. I ’m sure, he did n’t mean to 
steal Jerry’s ticket to the circus ” 

“Why, mother!” exclaimed Danny. “I 
did n’t steal it ! He gave it to Celia Jane of 
his own free will and she gave it to me, did n’t 
you, Celia Jane ? ” 

“Yet it was stealing,” replied his mother, 
“for you put Celia Jane up to it. Nora told 
me all about it and Nora never tells what is 
not true.” 

“You gave your ticket to Celia Jane, didn’t 
you, Jerry — I mean, Gary?” appealed 
Danny. 

“Yes,” Jerry replied hesitantly. 

“There, you see, Mother, I didn’t steal 
it,” Danny defended himself. 

“Because you put Celia Jane up to getting 
Jerry’s ticket for you,” continued his mother, 
“you must stay home to-night and — ” 

“Not go to the circus !” exclaimed Danny. 
“W T hen it don’t cost nothin’!” 

“And Celia Jane can keep you company. 
196 


“ — ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON” 


I ’ve told you again and again that you 
cotild n’t impose upon Jerry just because he ’s 
not a Mullarkey.” 

“Stay home from the circus !” wailed Celia 
Jane, appalled, and then she burst into a 
flood of tears. Jerry was sure they were not 
crocodile ones this time, for her body shook 
with the sobs of anguished disappointment. 
He wanted Celia Jane to see the circus and 
Danny, too, and he knew Danny was sorry. 

“Mebbe I would n’t never have seen White- 
face — Father,” he said to Mother ’Larkey, 
“if Danny had n’t gone into the circus.” 

“That is true,” Whiteface corroborated. 
“I found him crying outside the tent and told 
him he could speak to me inside if he recog- 
nized me. He did recognize me and that was 
undoubtedly one of the things that led to the 
discovery of his identity.” 

“Danny likes me,” Jerry added. “He 
fought Darn Darner when he said they was 
goin’ to take me to the poor farm.” 

“So do I 1 -1-like you, J — J — Jerry,” 
sobbed Celia Jane. “ — I — I’m sorry I — ” 
A fresh outburst of sobbing prevented further 
speech. 


197 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


Jerry’s heart was touched at her grief and 
his own lips began to twist. 

“I want Danny and Celia Jane to see 
the circus, too, Mother ’Larkey,” Jerry 
protested. “ I ain’t mad at them any 
more.” 

“ Please let them come,” urged Jerry’s 
mother. “I am so happy that I can’t bear to 
think of them being so terribly disappointed. 
And Gary’s pleasure would be spoiled know- 
ing they were here at home while the rest 
of you were at the circus.” 

“It does seem hard-hearted,” Mrs. Mul- 
larkey relented, “but Danny knows he can’t 
pick on Jerry and not suffer for it. They 
can go to the circus, but I ’ll leave it to them 
what they shall do as a reminder that they 
must n’t pick on Jerry again. Danny, what 
will you do ?” 

Danny hesitated a moment and then said 
without a tremor : 

“Jerry can have all my marbles and I ’ll 
feed his white rabbit for him all summer.” 

“Not all your marbles?” queried Jerry, 
knowing what a pang it must have cost Danny 
voluntarily to decide to part with all his 
198 


“ — ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON ” 


agates and glassies and pee-wees and commies 
and steelies. 

“Yes,” said Mrs. Mullarkey, “every last 
one. Now, Celia Jane, stop your crying and 
tell us what you will do.” 

“I ’ll sweep the kitchen every day and do 
dishes without grumbling,” Celia Jane sniffled, 
while Danny was off upstairs at a run. 

“That will remind you to be more careful,” 
said Mrs. Mullarkey, “and remember you 
are to work willingly, without any grumbling.” 

“I will, Mother,” sobbed the girl. 

“And now,” Jerry heard his father saying, 
“it is time for us to be going back to the circus 
and of course Helen wants Gary with her now. 
We ’ll keep him with us for three weeks and 
then, when we play Hampton, I ’ll bring 
him back here for the rest of the summer. 
When our season closes we ’ll come for him 
and take him to Carroll.” 

“And we hope you will decide to move 
there, too, Mrs. Mullarkey,” said Mrs. 
Bowe. 

“I will if Mr. Bowe thinks it will be best 
for the children,” she replied. 

“I do think it so,” said Whiteface. “To- 
199 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


morrow I ’ll mail you a check for one hun- 
dred dollars and the rest of the thousand 
I ’ll send to you as you want.it. We ’ll arrange 
that when I bring Gary back. I have nothing 
with me now, as I have n’t any pocket in these 
clothes.” 

“I have,” said Mrs. Bowe and took several 
bills from her bag and pressed them into 
Mrs. Mullarkey’s hands. 

“I can’t thank you,” said Mother ’Larkey. 
“I don’t know how.” 

“You ’ve loved Gary, Mrs. Mullarkey. He 
would n’t love you so much if you had n’t. 
That is more thanks than I want. We owe 
more than thanks to you. Tell them good- 
by, Gary. We must*start.” 

Jerry was awfully glad that he had found 
his parents and that he was going with them 
and was much excited at the thought of 
traveling with the circus for three whole 
weeks and getting real well acquainted with 
Great Suit Anna O’Queen, but his throat 
grew all lumpy at the thought of leaving 
kindly Mother ’Larkey, loving Kathleen and 
gentle Nora and Chris and — yes, and Danny 
and Celia Jane, too. 


200 


“ — ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON ” 


Mrs. Mullarkey gathered him up in her 
arms and kissed him. 

“Good-by, Jerry. You’ve brought good 
fortune to this family and put food into 
the mouths of my children and clothes on 
their backs when I could n’t see where 
they were to come from. You must love 
your mother hard for all the time she 
has been without you — and your father, 
too.” 

“I will,” Jerry promised and squeezed her 
neck very hard and kissed her. Just then 
Danny came tumbling breathlessly down- 
stairs and thrust a little cloth sack, which 
was very heavy, into Jerry’s hand. 

“Here are my marbles,” he said. “All 
thirty-two of them.” 

“I don’t want them,” said Jerry. 

“Take them with you, Jerry,” Mother 
’Larkey urged him. “It will help Danny to 
remember some things which he mustn’t 
forget.” 

Jerry consulted his mother’s eyes. She 
nodded her head and he took the marbles. 
Then he shook hands with Danny and Chris 
and Nora and kissed and hugged Kathleen, 
201 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 


leaving Celia Jane till the last, because she 
was still sobbing. 

Celia Jane did not feel entirely forgiven 
because Jerry seemed to avoid her and she 
abased herself before him. 

“I — I’m s-s-sorry, Jerry. I’ll n-n-never 
do it again. You ain’t mad at m-m-me any 
m-m-more, are you, Jerry?” 

“No, I ain’t mad at you,” Jerry assured 
her. 

“Then will you m-m -marry me when we 
are g-g-grown up, Jerry ? ” 

Jerry flushed uncomfortably at that and 
felt that Celia Jane was taking an unfair 
advantage of him, so he did not answer. 

“W-w-will you, J-J-Jerry?” Celia Jane be- 
sought him. 

“No,” said Jerry at length. 

“Why w-w-won’t you?” 

Jerry felt himself flushing still more hotly 
from head to foot, partly at the smile he saw 
his father and mother exchange and partly 
at Celia Jane’s importunity. 

“Because,” he said. 

“I ’ll g-g-give you my silver ring if you 
will, Jerry.” 


202 


“ — ELEPHANTS TO RIDE UPON” 


“No,” said Jerry more firmly. 

“Why won’t you, J-J-Jerry?” 

“Yes, Gary,” interposed his father with a 
dancing, twinkling light in his eyes, “why 
can’t you promise it to oblige the lady ?” 

“’Cause,” Jerry informed him gravely, 
“when I grow up I ’in goin’ to marry Kath- 
leen.” 

Jerry was somewhat dumfounded at the 
burst of laughter which followed his announce- 
ment. They did not know, he thought, that 
Kathleen had given him her old, adored rag 
dog of her own free will. 

“The darling!” cried Mother ’Larkey, 
after she had stopped laughing. “But 
there is plenty of time to change your mind 
yet.” 

“Then you must be very kind to Kathleen, 
always,” said Jerry’s mother. 

“He has been,” said Mrs. Mullarkey. 

Kathleen looked up at Jerry and gurgled. 

“Never mind, Celia Jane,” consoled Nora. 
“He ’ll be in the family, anyway.” 

Celia Jane was greatly cheered by that 
consolation and brightened visibly, much to 
Jerry’s relief. She kissed him good-by, throw- 
203 


THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN 

ing both arms tightly about his neck in her 
impetuous fashion. 

It was with a sad and yet singing heart that 
Jerry followed his father and mother out to 
Sultana, — sad at leaving behind all that had 
made his life and his world the past three 
years, and singing at the thought of the new 
world and the new life he was about to enter 
into, with a father and mother of his very 
own, a circus twice a day, every day in the 
week but Sunday, and elephants to ride upon. 




The adventures of a little Italian hoy with a traveling circus 


THE LITTLE ACROBAT 


By JANIE P. DUGGAN 
Author of “Little Cuba Libre” 
Illustrated. Decorated cloth. 


Little Natale spent a very happy life roving over 
the world with the small circus in which his mother 
and stepfather performed, and his greatest ambition 
was to rival Antonio, the most wonderful acrobat of 
them all. But a well-meaning and generous English 
lady thought Natale would better be at school. So 
for a certain sum she persuaded his parents, despite 
his tears and protests, to leave him in charge of the 
village priest, when the circus departed for another 
town. Then came a miserable time for the child, 
deprived of all his former occupations, and shut up 
in a schoolroom. He nearly became ill of home- 
sickness before he finally gained courage to run 
away and seek his beloved circus. How he fared on 
his wanderings and finally reached his own people 
again makes a vivid story of sunny Italy. 


LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers 

34 Beacon Street, Boston 


Real stories of three famous elephants 


THE ADVENTURES OF 
MOLLIE, WADDY and TOOT 

By PAUL WAITT 

Illustrated in color by Clara E. Atwood. 


Molly, Waddy and Tony are three of the most wonderful 
elephants in the world. Born in India, they have traveled 
all over Europe and our own America, showing their clever 
tricks to thousands of boys and girls. They were bought by 
the children of Boston and are now kept in the Franklin 
Park Zoo, where they will remain the rest of their lives. 

Mr. Waitt writes of their adventures when they were 
traveling, and tells of some tricks they played which their 
keeper never taught them. Little Tony is the roguish one, 
and he is always getting into mischief. That clever little 
trunk of his pokes into all sorts of places where it doesn’t be- 
long, and sometimes it takes Mollie, Waddy and Johann, the 
keeper, to make him behave as a proper little elephant should. 


“This is the most bewitching elephant story we ever read. 
It is the story of their travels through many countries. It is 
as good a story for boys and girls as any boys and girls will 
ever want to read.” — Journal of Education, Boston. 

“The story of ‘The Adventures of Mollie, Waddy, and 
Tony” is one of the nicest that little people who like animals 
can read.” — New York Times. 


LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers 

34 Beacon Street, Boston 
















































































































































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